& 

~ 


FROM   VOL   II,   OF  THE   MEMOIRS   OF  THE   KENTUCKY 

GEOLOGICAL   SURVEY. 

N.    S.   JSIIALKR,    .DIKECTOH. 


THE    MOUNDS 


OF    THE 


MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY 


HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED. 


BY    LUCIEN   CARR, 

ASSISTANT   CL'RATOR  OF  THE    ['PARODY   MITSKUM   OF    AMKIIIOAN    ARCH.KOI/x; Y 
AND    RTJIXOLOCY,   CAMHRIDGF,    MASS. 


s 


0 


THE  MOUNDS 


OF   THE 


MISSISSIPPI    YALLEY, 


HISTORICALLY  CONSIDERED. 


BY  LUCIEN  CARR,    180- 1 

/ 

ASSISTANT  CURATOR  OF  THE  PEABODY  MUSEUM  OF  AMERICAN  ARCHAEOLOGY 
AND  ETHNOLOGY,  CAMBRIDGE,  MASS. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION 3 

THE  INDIAN  AS  AN  AGRICULTURIST 7 

THE  INDIAN  AS  A  WORSHIPER  OF  THE  SUN 35 

THE  INDIAN  AS  A  MOUND-BUILDER 57 


THE    MOUNDS   OF   THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY, 
HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED. 


IN  a  paper  upon  the  Prehistoric  Remains  of  Kentucky,  published  in  the 
first  volume  of  these  Memoirs,  I  have  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  was 
impossible  to  distinguish  between  a  series  of  stone  implements  taken  from 
the  mounds  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  a  similar  series  made  and  used 
by  the  modern  Indians.  In  fact,  so  alike  are  these  objects  in  conception 
and  execution,  that  any  attempt  to  distinguish  them,  based  upon  form  or 
finish,  must  be  but  the  merest  guesswork.  From  the  rude  knife  to  the 
carved  and  polished  "gorget,"  they  may,  one  and  all,  have  been  taken  from 
the  inmost  recesses  of  a  mound,  or  picked  up  on  the  surface  amid  the  debris 
of  a  recent  Indian  village;  and  the  most  experienced  archaeologist,  if  called 
upon  to  decide  as  to  their  origin,  would  have  to  acknowledge  himself  at 
fault.(')  ATor  does  this  similarity  stop  with  objects  made  of  stone.  On-the 
contrary,  it  is  believed  to  extend  to  all  the  articles,  of  every  kind  whatso 
ever,  that  have  thus  far  been  taken  from  the  mounds.  Indeed,  I  might 
even  go  farther,  and  as  the  result  of  some  years  of  work,  as  well  in  the  field 
as  in  the  library,  venture  the  assertion  that  not  only  has  there  not,  as  yet, 
been  anything  taken  from  the  mounds  indicating  a  higher  stage  of  develop 
ment  than  the  red  Indian  of  the  United  States  is  known  to  have  reached, 
but  that  even  the  mounds  themselves,  and  under  this  head  are  included  all 
the  earth-works  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  were  quite  within  the  limits  of 
his  efforts. 

This  conclusion,  together  with  its  corollary  as  to  the  origin  of  these 
structures,  is  neither  new  nor  original ;  and  yet,  in  spite  of  the  simple  ex 
planation  it  gives  of  the  mound  question,  or,  perhaps,  it  might  be  more 
correct  to  say  on  account  of  this  very  simplicity,  it  has  made  its  way  but 
slowly.  It  seems  difficult  to  account  for  this  fact  except  on  the  ground  that 
those  who  have  written  upon  this  subject,  and  who  have,  to  a  certain  extent, 

(1.)  Compare  Schoolcrnft's  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States,  vol.  IV,  p.  141.  Brinton,  Floridian 
Peninsula,  p.  176:  Philadelphia,  1859.  M.  F.  Force,  Some  Considerations  on  the  Monnd-builders,  p.  72: 
Cincinnati,  1873.  S.  F.  Haven  in  vol.  VIII  of  the  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge^  p.  158. 
Lapham  in  vol.  VII  of  same,  p.  30. 


THE    MOUNDS   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

moulded  public  opinion,  have  approached  it  from  one  side  only.  They  have, 
usually,  belonged  to  the  class  of  practical  explorers,  and  have  brought  to 
the  investigation  a  certain  number  of  facts,  chiefly  cumulative  in  character; 
but  they  have  not,  as  a  rule,  been  possessed  of  that  measure  of  historical 
information  which  is  necessary  to  a  correct  interpretation  of  these  facts. 
Being  thus,  as  it  were,  but  half  prepared  for  the  work,  they  have,  not 
(infrequently,  given  too  much  play  to  the  imagination,  and  carried  their 
theories  much  farther  than  the  facts  would  warrant.  Impressed  with  the 
size  and  character  of  these  remains,  or  led  astray  by  certain  resemblances, 
fancied  or  real,  to  similar  objects  elsewhere,  they  have  used  them  as  a  basis 
for  reconstructing  a  phase  of  civilization  to  which,  in  point  of  religious, 
artistic,  and  political  development,  they  declare  the  Indian  to  have  been 
unequal.  From  these  extreme  views  there  has  always  been  more  or  less 
dissent.(2)  Even  Mr.  Squier,  who,  in  his  famous  work — "The  Ancient  Mon 
uments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley" — makes  no  distinction  in  these  remains, 
but  speaks  of  the  Mound-builders  as  an  "extinct  race,"(3)  and  contrasts  their 
progress  in  the  arts  with  the  low  condition  of  the  modern  Indians,(4)  is 
obliged,  in  a  subsequent  publication,  to  modify  his  views  and  draw  a  line 
of  demarkation  between  the  earth-works  of  Western  New  York  and  those 
found  in  Southern  Ohio,  especially  those  which  he  styles  religious  or  "sacred 
inclosures."  The  former  of  these,  he  thinks,  were  erected  by  the  recent 
Indians,  and  he  supports  this  view  by  a  chain  of  reasoning  that  is  believed 

(2.)  "They"  (the  earthworks)  "differ  less  in  kind  than  in  degree  from  other  remains  respecting  which 
history  has  not  been  entirely  silent:"  Haven  in  vol.  VIII  of  the  Smithsonian  Contributions,  p.  158. 
"There  is  nothing,  indeed,  in  the  magnitude  and  structure  of  our  Western  mounds  which  a  semi-hunter 
and  semi-agricultural  population,  like  that  which  may  be  ascribed  to  the  ancestors  or  Indian  predecessors 
of  the  existing  race,  could  not  have  executed :  "  Schoolcraft's  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States,  vol.  I,  p. 
62.  "All  these  earthworks — and  I  am  inclined  to  assert  the  same  of  the  whole  of  those  in  the  Atlantic 
States  and  the  majority  in  the  Mississippi  valley — were  the  production  not  of  some  mythical  tribe  of 
high  civilization  in  remote  antiquity,  but  of  the  identical  nations  found  by  the  whites  residing  in  these 
regions:"  Brinton,  Floridian  Peninsula,  p.  176:  Philadelphia,  1859.  "No  doubt  that  they  wrere  erected 
by  the  forefathers  of  the  present  Indians,  as  places  of  refuge  against  the  incursions  of  their  enemies,  and 
of  security  for  their  women  and  children  when  they  were  compelled  to  leave  them  for  the  duties  of  the 
chase:"  Genl.  Lewis  Cass,  in  North  American  Review  for  January,  1826.  "Nothing  in  them  which  may 
not  have  been  performed  by  a  savage  people:"  Gallatin,  in  Archseologia  Americana,  vol.  II,  p.  149. 
"The  old  idea  that  the  Mound-builders  were  peoples  distinct  from  and  other  than  the  Indians  of  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  and  their  progenitors,  appears  unfounded  in  fact,  and  fanciful:"  C.  C. 
Jones,  in  North  American  Review  for  January,  1874,  p.  80.  "Mound-builders  were  tribes  of  American 
Indians  of  the  same  race  with  the  tribes  now  living:"  M.  F.  Force  at  the  Congrcs  International  des 
Americanistes:  Luxembourg,  1877.  "The  progress  of  discovery  seems  constantly  to  diminish  the  distinc 
tion  between  the  ancient  and  modern  race=;;  and  it  may  not  be  very  wide  of  the  truth  to  assert  that  they 
•were  the  sani3  people:"  Lapham,  in  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge,  vol.  VII,  p.  29. 

(3.)  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge,  vol.  I,  p.  30C:  Washington,  1848, 
(4.)  1.  c.,  pp.  188  and  242. 


THE   MOUNDS  OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  5 

to  be  unanswerable.  In  it,  he  institutes  a  comparison  between  the  "relics 
of  art  and  traces  of  occupancy  "  found  within  them,  and  those  which  mark 
the  sites  of  towns  and  forts  that  are  known  to  have  been  occupied  by  the 
Indians,  and  pronounces  them  to  be  identical.  To  this  powerful  argument, 
drawn  from 'what  may,  not  inaptly,  be  termed  the  facts  of  the  mound,  he 
adds  very  copious  notes  as  to  the  origin  and  use  of  such  structures  among 
the  people  of  all  ages  and  countries,  though,  of  course,  with  special  refer 
ence  to  those  that  are  known  to  have  been  erected  by  the  American  In 
dians.  In  this  historical  retrospect  he  permits  the  facts  to  speak  for  them 
selves  with  most  commendable  impartiality,  even  though,  as  he  frankly 
admits,  they  led  to  the  conclusion  little  anticipated  when  he  started  on 
the  trip  of  exploration  "  that  the  earth- works  of  Western  New  York  were 
erected  by  the  Iroquois  or  their  western  neighbors,  and  do  not  possess  an 
antiquity  going  far  back  of  the  discovery."  (5) 

To  this  conclusion,  so  far  as  it  goes,  I  certainly  do  not  object.  Unfor 
tunately,  however,  it  stops  short  of  the  mark;  and  this  is  the  more  to  be 
regretted,  inasmuch  as  it  is  believed  that  the  line  of  argument  by  which 
Mr.  Squier  convinced  himself  that  the  defensive  works  of  Western  New 
York  were  erected  by  the  modern  Indians  would,  if  it  had  been  applied 
to  the  earth-works  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  of  every  kind  whatsoever, — 
to  the  so-called  sacred  inclosures  not  less  than  to  the  hill  forts — have  led 
him  to  precisely  the  same  conclusion.  The  two  propositions  rest  upon  essen 
tially  the  same  foundation,  and,  as  wef  shall  see  later  on,  must  stand  or 
fall  together. 

Before  beginning  this  task,  however,  it  may  be  well  to  premise  that  it  is 
not  intended,  in  the  course  of  this  investigation,  to  assert  that  the  mounds 
were  built  by  any  particular  tribe  or  tribes  of  Indians,  or  at  any  particular 
time;  neither  is  it  claimed  that  each  and  every  tribe  living  within  the 
Mississippi  Valley  erected  such  structures.  So  far  as  my  present  purpose 
is  concerned,  they  may  have  been  built  by  any  tribe  that  can  be  shown  to 
have  occupied  the  regions  where  they  are  found,  and  at  any  time  during 
the  period  of  such  occupancy.  All  that  I  intend  to  assert  is,  that,  admit 
ting  everything  that  can  be  reasonably  claimed  by  the  most  enthusiastic 
advocate  of  the  superior  civilization  of  the  Mound-builders,  there  is  no 
reason  why  the  red  Indians  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  judging  from  what 

(5.)  Aboriginal  Monuments  of  the  State  of  New  York  in  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge, 
vol.  II,  p.  83:  Washington,  1851. 


6  THE    MOlTXDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

we  know,  historically,   of  their  development,  could  not  have  thrown  up 
these  works.      This  proposition  is   not  as  complete  as  could  be  desired, 
and  yet  it  probably  embodies  all  that  can  ever  be  proven  on  this  subject. 
Ability  and  performance  do  not  always  go  hand  in  hand,  and  the  fact  that 
a  people  could  have  executed  a  piece  of  work  does  not,  by  any  means, 
authorize  the  conclusion  that  they  did  do  so.     Between  the  two  there  is, 
logically  speaking,  a  wide  gulf  which  can  only  be  successfully  passed  by 
a  resort  to  what  is  known  as  the  law  of  probabilities.     This  is  unfortu 
nate,  but  under  the  circumstances  it  is  unavoidable;  and  although  it  will, 
unquestionably,  cause  our  conclusion  to  lack  somewhat  of  the  force  of  a 
scientific  demonstration,  yet  it  is  believed  that  after  making  all  due  allow 
ance,  there  will  remain  such  a  volume  of  evidence  in  favor  of  our  propo 
sition  as  to  justify  a  favorable  decision.     In  all  human  probability  it  will 
never  be  known  who  built  these  mounds  in  the  same  sense  in  which  it  is 
known  who  built  Westminster  Abbey ;  but  if  it  can  be  demonstrated  that 
the  people  who  erected  them  were  in  the  same — neolithic — stage  of  civiliza 
tion  that  the  Indians  are  known  to  have  attained,  and  if,  further,  it  can 
be  shown  on   undoubted  historic  authority  that  these  Indians  built  both 
mounds   and   earth-works,   which  differ  in  degree  but  not  in  kind  from 
similar  structures  that  are  assumed  to  have  been  the  work  of  an  extinct 
people,  whom  we  have  called  the  Mound-builders,  then  it  must  be  acknowl 
edged  that  a  strong  argument  is  made  out  in  favor  of  the  identity  of  the 

^ 

origin  of  the  two  systems  of  works.  To  reject  this  conclusion  without 
some  positive  evidence  to  the  contrary  would  involve  as  great  an  absurdity 
as  it  would  be  to  maintain,  supposing  all  record  of  the  fact  to  be  lost,  that 
Westminster  Abbey  was  built  by  a  people  belonging  to  a  different  race 
from  that  which  is  known,  formerly,  to  have  lived  in  London,  and  for  no 
better  reason  than  because  the  English  of  to-day  have  ceased  to  build  such 
abbeys. 

This  much  being  premised,  we  are  now  ready  to  take  up  the  thread 
of  our  investigation;  and  by  way  of  beginning,  let  us  examine  into  the 
accounts,  given  by  the  early  writers,  of  the  mode  of  life  and  the  civil  and 
religious  polity  of  the  Indians  in  order  to  find  out  whether  there  is  any 
thing  that  would  lead  us  to  conclude,  a  priori,  that  it  was  impossible  for 
them  to  have  erected  these  works.  On  the  part  of  those  who  hold  affirma 
tive  view£  on  this  point,  it  is  contended  that  a  system  of  works  of  the  size, 
say  of  those  in  the  Scioto  Valley,  would  have  required  the  united  labor 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  7 

of  many  persons  for  a  long  period  of  time,  and  that  as  the  Indians  were 
hunters — not  agriculturists — and  averse  to  labor,  they  could  not  have 
carried  it  on,  for  the  reason  that,  owing  to  their  wandering  and  precarious 
mode  of  life,  the  means  of  subsistence  would  have  failed  them,  even  if 
there  had  been  some  central  authority,  or  some  controlling  motive  strong 
enough  to  impel  them  to  the  undertaking. (6)  This  is  believed  to  be  a  fair 
statement  of  the  argument,  and  if  well  founded,  it  would  be  decisive  of  the 
matter.  Upon  examination,  however,  it  will  be  seen  that  it  is  based  upon 
the  assumption  that  the  Mound-builders  were  an  agricultural  people,  and 
lived  under  a  strongly  centralized  form  of  government,  no  matter  whether 
that  government  was  one  of  force,  or  of  opinion  founded  upon  policy  or 
religion.  This  assumption  is,  probably,  not  far  from  the  truth;  but  to  have 
any  weight  in  this  discussion,  it  must  carry  with  it,  as  a  correlative,  the 
further  admission  that  the  Indian  was  not  an  agriculturist,  and  was  not 
subject  to  any  such  central  authority,  or  controlled  by  any  such  impelling 
motive.  This,  of  course,  is  not  admitted,  and  it  is  precisely  upon  these 
points  that  the  issue  is  to  be  joined. 

SECTION  I. 

THE  INDIAN  AS  AN  AGRICULTURIST. 

Taking  up,  in  their  order,  the  requirements  that  are  admitted  to  have 
been  possessed  by  the  builders  of  these  mounds,  and  which  are  popularly 
supposed  to  have  been  wanting  in  the  Indian,  we  are  met,  first  of  all,  with 
the  statement,  made  either  directly  or  by  implication,  that  he  was  not  an 
agriculturist,  but  depended  almost  entirely  upon  the  chase  for  the  means  of 
subsistence.(7)  True,  there  exists  a  vague  notion  that  succotash  and  hominy 
were  not  unknown  in  the  aboriginal  cuisine,  and  there  may  be  those  of  us 
who  are  sufficiently  skilled  in  culinary  matters  to  say  that  these  succulent 
dishes  are  made  of  Indian  corn ;  but  of  the  substantial  truth  of  the  above 
statement  there  is  little  or  no  doubt,  even  among  those  who  have  taken  the 
trouble  to  write  on  the  subject.  Exactly  why  this  is  so,  when  all  the 

(6.)  Squier,  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  pp.  45  and  301  et  seq.:  Washington,  1848. 
Foster,  Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United  States,  p.  346:  Chicago,  1873.  Baldwin,  Ancient  America,  p.  34: 
New  York,  1872.  McLean,  Mound-builders,  pp.  124  and  5:  Cincinnati,  1879. 

(7.)  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  p.  45.  Baldwin,  Ancient  America,  p.  34.  Foster, 
Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United  States,  p.  300.  Schoolcraft's  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States,  vol.  VI, 
p.  183.  Gookin  in  vol.  I  of  the  first  series  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Collections,  p.  149.  Colden's 
History  of  the  Five  Nations,  p.  13:  London,  1767. 


8  THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

records  tell  us  that  the  early  colonists  in  New  England,  Virginia,  and  else 
where  throughout  the  eastern  portion  of  the  United  States  owed  their  lives, 
on  more  than  one  occasion,  to  the  timely  supplies  of  corn  begged,  bought, 
or  stolen  from  the  natives,  (8)  is  something  of  a  mystery,  though  perhaps  it 
is  not  more  inexplicable  than  it  is  to  account  for  the  efforts,  at  this  late  day, 
of  earnest  and  intelligent  men  to  have  the  Indian  shown  how  to  raise  corn, 
and  this  in  face  of  the  fact  that  he  has  cultivated  that  most  useful  cereal 
for  hundreds  of  years,  and  actually  taught  our  ancestors  the  process. (9) 
These  are  but  samples  of  the  loose  way  of  thinking  that  prevails  upon 
this  and  kindred  topics,  and  it  must  be  our  excuse,  if  any  be  needed,  for 
going  into  the  matter  somewhat  in  detail.  Fortunately,  the  material  for 
this  purpose  is  quite  abundant,  and  the  testimony  so  uniform  that  of  the 
main  fact — the  cultivation  of  corn  in  greater  or  less  quantities  by  all  the 
tribes  living  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the 
great  lakes — there  cannot  be  a  shadow  of  doubt. (I0)  All  the  early  writers 
are  agreed  upon  the  point,  and  there- is  no  room  for  a  difference  of  opinion, 
except,  perhaps,  in  regard  to  the  amount  grown.  Upon  this  point,  too,  the 

(8.)  Plusieurs  nations  sauvages  o'etablirent  sur  le  Mississippi  assez  pres  de  la  Nouvelle  Orleans  et 
comme  la  plupart  de  ces  Peuples  sont  dans  1' usage  de  cultiver  la  terre,  ils  defricherent  des  grands  terreins, 
ce  qui  fut  une  resource  pour  cette  ville  a  laquelle  ils  out  souvent  fourni  des  vivres  daus  le  besoin: "  Char- 
levoix,  Histoire  de  la  Nouvelle  France,  vol.  IV,  p.  198:  Paris,  1744.  "I  was  safely  conducted  to  James- 
towne,  where  I  found  about  eight  ajid  thirtie  poore  and  sicke  creatures;  *  *  *  such  was  the  weakness 
of  this  poore  commonwealthe  as,  had  the  salvages  not  fed  us  we  directlie  had  starved.  And  this  relyfe, 
most  gracious  Queene,  was  commonly  brought  by  this  lady  Pocahontas ;  *  *  *  during  the  time  of  two 
or  three  yeares,  shee  next,  under  God,  was  still  the  instrument  to  preserve  this  colonie  from  death,  famine 
and  utter  confusion:"  Capt.  Smith,  Relation  to  Queene  Anne  in  History  of  Virginia,  p.  121:  London, 
1632.  "By  selling  them  corn,  when  pinched  with  famine,  they"  (the  Indians)  "relieved  their  distresses 
and  prevented  them  from  perishing  in  a  strange  land  and  uncultivated  wilderness:  "  Trumbull,  Connecti 
cut,  vol.  I,  p.  47:  Hartford,  1797.  "They  got  in  this  vioage,  in  one  place  and  other,  about  26  or  28 
hogsheads  of  corne  and  beanes: "  Bradford's  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol. 
Ill,  fourth  series,  p.  129.  "Others  fell  to  plaine  stealing,  both  night  and  day,  from  ye  Indeans,  of  which 
they  greevously  complained.  *  *  *  Yea,  in  ye  end  they  were  faine  to  hange  one  of  their  men,  whom 
they  could  not  reclaime  from  stealing:"  Ibid.,  p.  130.  "Sometimes  these  savages"  (the  Hurons  and 
Ouattawacs  at  Missilmakinac)  "sell  their  corn  very  dear:"  La  Hontan,  Voyages,  vol.  I,  p.  90:  London, 
1703.  See  also  Geo.  Percy,  Virginia,  in  Purchas  Pilgrims,  book  9,  chap.  2;  and  Winslow,  Good  Newes 
from  New  England  in  same,  book  10,  chap.  5:  London,  1625. 

(9.)  "Afterwards  they  (as  many  as  were  able)  began  to  plant  the  corne,  in  which  servise  Squanto  stood 
them  in  great  stead,  showing  them  both  ye  manner  how  to  set  it,  and  after  how  to  dress  and  tend  it." 
Bradford's  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation  in  Publications  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  Ill  of  4th  series,  p.  100. 
"Instructed  them  in  the  manner  of  planting  and  dressing  the  Indian  corn."  Trumbull's  History  of 
Connecticut,  vol.  I,  p.  46,  Hartford,  1797. 

(10.)  "All  the  tribes  east  of  the  Mississippi  were  more  or  less  agricultural.  They  all  raised  corn,  beans, 
squashes  and  melons."  Force,  Some  Considerations  on  the  Mound-builders,  p.  70.  "Le  mais  ainsi  que 
Je  viens  de  le  dire  est  la  nourriture  commune  de  tous  les  sauvages  sedentaires  depins  le  fond  du  Bresil 
Jusques  aux  extremitez  du  Canada."  Lafltau,  Moeurs  des  Sauvages  Ameriquains,  vol.  II,  p.  64:  Paris, 
1724.  "The  whole  of  the  tribes  situated  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  in  Ohio  and  the  Lakes  reaching 
on  both  Bides  of  the  Alleghanies,  quite  to  Massachusetts  and  other  parts  of  New  England,  cultivated 


THE   MOUNDS   OE   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  9 

evidence  is  explicit.  Instead  of  cultivating  it  in  small  patches  as  a  summer 
luxury,  it  can  be  shown,  on  undoubted  authority,  that  everywhere,  within 
the  limits  named,  the  Indian  looked  upon  it  as  a  staple  article  of  food,  both 
in  summer  and  winter;  that  he  cultivated  it  in  large* fields,  and  understood 
and  appreciated  the  benefits  arising  from  the  use  of  fertilizers.(")  Indeed, 
such  was  his  proficiency  and  industry,  that  even  with  the  rude  and  imperfect 
implements  at  his  disposal, (I2)  he  not  only  raised  corn  enough  for  his  own 
use,  but,  as  a  rule,  had  some  to  spare  to  his  needy  neighbors,  both  red  and 
white. ('3)  Under  ordinary  circumstances  it  would  only  be  necessary  to 
establish  this  fact  in  order  to  prove,  beyond  cavil,  that  the  red  Indian  was 
an  agriculturist  in  the  very  highest  acceptation  of  that  term,  and  that  in 
this  respect,  at  least,  he  stood  upon  the  same  footing  as  the  Mound-builders. 
In  the  present  instance,  however,  this  is  not  the  case.  Not  only  is  it  not 
sufficient  to  prove  that  the  Indians  were  husbandmen  in  order  to  raise  them 
to  this  level,  but  we  are  called  upon  to  show  that  among  them  the  men 
labored  in  the  fields  as  well  as  the  women.  Indeed,  we  are  told  by  a  writer, 
from  whom  I  differ  with  many  misgivings,  that,  in  this  respect,  there  was 

Indian  corn.  It  was  the  staple  product."  Schoolcraft,  vol.  I,  p.  80.  "All  the  nations  I  have  known, 
and  who  inhabit  from  the  sea  as  far  as  the  Illinois,  and  even  farther,  which  is  a  space  of  about  1,500 
miles,  carefully  cultivate  the  maiz  corn,  which  they  make  their  principal  subsistence."  Du  Pratz,  His 
tory  of  Louisiana,  vol.  II,  p.  239:  London,  1763.  "The  territory  over  which  cultivation  had  extended, 
is  that  which  is  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Atlantic,  on  the  south  by  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  on  the  west 
generally  by  the  Mississippi,  or,  perhaps  more  properly,  by  the  prairies,  on  the  north,  it  may  be  said, 
by  the  nature  of  the  climate."  Archseologia  Americana  (Gallatin),  vol.  II,  p.  149.  "It  was  found  in 
cultivation  from  the  southern  extremity  of  Chili  to  the  fiftieth  parallel  of  north  latitude,  beyond  which 
limits  the  low  temperature  renders  it  an  uncertain  crop."  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  23: 
New  York,  1876.  See  also  Relation,  A.  D.  1626,  p.  2:  Quebec,  1858. 

(11.)  "Also  he  tould  them  excepte  they  gott  fish  and  set  with  it  (in  the  old  grounds)  it  would  come 
to  nothing."  Bradford's  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  in  vol.  Ill,  of  4th  series  of  Mass.  Hist.  Coll., 
p.  100.  The  Iroquois  "manure  a  great  deal  of  ground  for  sowing  their  Indian  corn."  Hennepin,  a  New 
Discovery  of  a  Vast  Country  in  America,  &c.,  vol.  I,  p.  18:  London,  1698.  "Tons  ces  peuples"  (Armou- 
chiquois,  Virginiens,  &c.)  "engraissent  leurs  champs  de  coquillages  de  poissons."  Lescarbot,  vol.  II,  p. 
834:  Paris,  1612.  "They  never  dung  their  land,  only  when  they  would  sow."  Lauclonnitire.  First 
Attempt  of  the  French  to  Colonize  Florida,  in  Hist.  Coll.  Louisiana,  new  series,  p.  174:  New  York,  1869. 

(12.)  "Use  wooden  howes."  Williams'  Key,  p.  130.  "Spades  made  of  hard  wood  used  in  agricul 
ture."  Bossu,  Travels  Through  Louisiana,  p.  224:  London,  1771.  "Florida  Indians  dig  their  ground 
with  an  instrument  of  wood  which  is  fashioned  like  a  broad  mattock."  Laudonniere  in  Hist.  Coll. 
Louisiana,  new  series,  p.  174:  New  York,  1869.  "Us  ont  un  instrument  de  bois  fort  dur,  faict  en  facon 
d'une  besche."  Champlain,  vol.  I,  p.  95:  Paris,  1830.  "II  leur  suffit  d'un  morceau  de  bois  recourbe 
de  trois  doigts  de  largeur,  attach^  a  un  long  manche  qui  leur  sert  a  sarcler  la  terre  et  a  la  rermuer  legere- 
ment."  Lafitau,  Moeurs  des  Sauvagss  Ameriquains,  vol.  II,  p.  76.  "Use  hoes  made  of  shoulder  blade 
of  animals  fixed  on  staves."  Romans,  East  and  West  Florida,  p.  119.  "Use  shoulder  blade  of  a  deer 
or  a  tortoise  shell,  sharpened  upon  a  stone  and  fastened  to  a  stick  instead  of  a  hoe."  Loskiel,  Missions 
in  North  America,  p.  67:  London,  1794.  See  also  Joutel  in  Hist.  Coll.  Louisiana,  part  I,  p.  149,  &c.,  &c. 

(13.)  Relation  de  la  Nouvelle  France  en  1'  ann£e  1641,  p.  81:  Quebec,  1858.  Sagard,  Voyage  des 
Hurons,  pp.  125,  134:  Paris,  1632.  Capt.  John  Smith,  Description  of  New  England  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll., 
vol.  VI,  of  3d  series,  p.  120.  La  Hontan,  Voyages,  vol.  I,  p.  105:  London,  1703.  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p. 
175:  London,  1763. 


10  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

a  very  great  difference  between  the  Mound-builders  and  the  recent  Indians; 
and  although  the  difference  is  said  not  to  be  absolute,  yet  it  is  gravely  as 
serted  that  among  the  former  "the  men  must  have  labored,  whilst  among  the 
latter  labor  is  left  to  the  squaws. "(I4)  Statements  like  these,  unsupported  by 
evidence,  do  not  carry  much  weight ;  and  if  this  investigation  were  intended 
to  be  a  mere  trial  of  dialectical  skill,  and  not  an  earnest  search  after  the 
truth,  it  would  be  sufficient  to  pass  them  by  with  a  simple  denial — all  the 
reply  that  they  are  logically  entitled  to.  But  this  mode  of  procedure  would 
not  answer  the  purposes  of  this  inquiry,  and  hence  I  am  induced  to  accord 
them  a  more  respectful  consideration ;  and  I  do  this  the  more  willingly 
inasmuch  as  it  agrees  writh  my  general  plan  of  admitting  everything  that 
can  be  reasonably  claimed  in  behalf  of  the  Mound-builders,  whilst  at  the 
same  time  it  affords  an  opportunity  of  examining  into  the  correctness  of 
the  usually  received  opinion  "that  the  Indian  considered  labor  as  derog 
atory,  and  left  it  to  the  women."(15) 

Before  beginning  this  branch  of  the  inquiry,  however,  it  is  necessary  to 
come  to  some  understanding  as  to  the  meaning  to  be  given  to  the  word 
"labor,"  otherwise  we  shall  be  at  cross-purposes  throughout  the  whole  of 
the  investigation.  Used  in  its  broadest  sense,  the  term  includes  hunting 
and  fishing  —  occupations  which  undoubtedly  belonged  to  the  men,  and 
which,  when  followed,  not  as  a  pastime,  but  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  a 
subsistence,  involved  labor  of  the  very  hardest  kind.(l6)  If  to  this  it  be 
added  that  the  Indian  warrior  was  expected  to  do  all  the  fighting,  it  will 
be  seen  that,  at  a  very  moderate  estimate,  he  had  work  enough  on  his  hands 
to  keep  him  reasonably  busy.  As  an  evidence  of  the  absorbing  nature  of 
these  occupations,  it  may  be  said  that,  to-day,  in  some  countries  of  Conti 
nental  Europe  in  which  a  state  of  war  is  the  exception  and  not  the  rule,  as 
it  was  among  the  Indians,  the  performance  of  the  one  duty  of  military 
service  alone,  is  considered  to  be  a  sufficient  reason  for  withdrawing  all 

(14.)  Some  considerations  on  the  Mound-builders  by  M.  F.  Force,  pamphlet,  p.  72:  Cincinnati,  1873. 

(15.)  Arclueologia  Americana,  vol.  II,  p.  151.  Stoddard,  Sketches  of  Louisiana,  p.  411:  Philadelphia, 
1S12.  Colden,  Five  Nations,  vol.  I,  p.  13:  London,  1747.  Foster,  Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United  States, 
p.  300:  Chicago,  1873.  Churlevoix,  Letters,  vol.  II,  p.  126:  London,  1761. 

(16.)  "Fatigues  of  hunting  wear  out  the  body  and  constitution  far  more  than  manual  labor."  Heck- 
welder,  Historical  Account  of  the  Indian  Nations,  p.  146.  "Their  manner  of  rambling  through  the 
woods  to  kill  deer  is  a  very  laborious  exercise,  as  they  frequently  walk  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles 
through  rough  and  smooth  grounds,  and  fasting  before  they  return  back  to  camp  loaded."  Adair,  His 
tory  of  the  American  Indians,  p.  402:  London,  1775.  "Indian  affects  not  to  feel  the  weight  of  dragging 
a  deer  100^150  Ibs.  weight  through  a  considerable  tract  of  forest."  Loskiel,  Missions  in  America,  p.  107: 
London,  1794. 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  11 

able-bodied  males,  within  certain  ages,  from  every  kind  of  productive  labor 
during  the  term  of  such  service,  even  though  the  whole  of  it  be  passed  in 
a  time  of  profound  peace.  Among  these  nations,  and  they  are  some  of  the 
most  highly  civilized  in  Europe,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  labor,  using 
that  word  in  its  broadest  sense,  is  left  to  the  women  far  more  completely 
than  it  ever  was  among  the  Indians;  for  the  Indian,  when  not  actually  en 
gaged  in  warfare,  did  hunt  and  fish,  and  contribute  to  this  extent,  at  least, 
to  the  general  welfare,  whilst  his  European  counterpart  is  not  allowed  to 
engage  in  productive  labor  of  any  kind  whatsoever  during  his  term  of  mili 
tary  service.  But  there  is  another  and  a  narrower  sense,  in  which  the  word 
is  taken  to  mean  simply  field  work,  or  work  necessary  to  the  growth  and 
production  of  corn ;  and  it  is  this  signification  that  is  usually  given  to  it  by 
writers  on  this  subject,  and  it  is  in  this  sense  that  it  will  be,  hereafter,  used 
in  the  course  of  this  investigation.  Substituting,  then,  the  more  specialized 
form  of  expression  for  the  general  term,  and  the  sentence  will  read  as  fol 
lows  :  Among  the  Indians  field  work  was  considered  derogatory,  and  left  to 
the  women.  In  this  restricted  shape  the  statement  is  not  so  objectionable; 
and  yet,  even  in  this  form,  it  is  believed  to  be  altogether  too  sweeping. 
That  in  some  particular  years  this  work  may,  from  some  cause,  have  been 
left  to  the  women,  is,  of  course,  very  probable — the  necessities  of  war  or  the 
chase  might,  at  any  time,  render  this  unavoidable  in  any  tribe ;  and  it  may 
also  be  true  that  in  the  division  of  labor  between  the  sexes,  made  necessary 
by  the  duty  of  providing  for  the  family,  this  share,  among  certain  tribes, 
fell  to  her  lot;  but  that  it  was  either  onerous, (1?)  or  compulsory, (lS)  or  that 

(17.)  "Labor  in  the  fields  employ  women  six  weeks  in  12  months,  while  the  labor  of  the  husband  to 
maintain  his  family  last  throughout  the  year."  Heckwelder,  Historical  Account  of  the  Indian  Nations, 
p.  142.  "The  work  of  the  women  is  not  hard  or  difficult.  *  *  *  The  tilling  of  the  ground  at  home 
*  *  *  is  frequently  done  by  female  parties,  much  in  the  manner  of  those  husking,  quilting,  and  other 
frolics.  *  *  *  The  labor  is  thus  quickly  and  easily  performed;  when  it  is  over,  and  sometimes  in 
intervals,  they  sit  down  to  enjoy  themselves  by  feasting  on  some  good  victuals  prepared  for  them  by 
the  person  or  family  for  whom  they  work,  &c."  Ibid.,  pp.  144,  145.  Consult  also  Williams'  Key  to  the 
Indian  Language,  in  Collections  of  the  Rhode  Island  Hist.  Soc.,  p.  92.  Sagard,  Voyage  des  Hurons,  p.  130: 
Paris,  1632.  Joutel,  Journal  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  I,  p.  149.  Lafitau,  Moeurs  des  Sauvages 
Ameriquains,  vol.  II,  p.  77:  Paris,  1724. 

(18.)  "Elles  trauaillent  ordinairement  plus  que  les  hommes,  encore  qu'ellcs  n'y  soient  point  forcees  n'y 
contraintes: "  Sagard,  Voyage  des  Hurons,  p.  130:  Paris,  1632.  "Not  only  voluntarily,  but  cheerfully 
performed:"  Heckwelder,  p.  142.  "In  the  spring  the  corn-field  is  planted  by  her  and  the  youngsters  in  a 
vein  of  gaiety  and  frolic.  It  is  done  in  a  few  hours,  and  taken  care  of  in  the  same  spirit.  It  is  perfectly 
voluntary  labor,  and  she  would  not  be  scolded  for  omitting  it;  for  all  labor  with  Indians  is  voluntary." 
Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States,  vol.  II,  p.  64.  "Au  reste  ce  travail  n'est  pas  penible:" 
Charlevoix,  Nouvelle  France,  vol.  Ill,  p.  23.  See  also  Life  of  Mary  Jemison,  a  captive  among  the  Iro- 
quois,  who  says,  pp.  69,  70,  that  the  "lot  of  the  Indian  women  is  not  harder  than  that  of  white  women: " 
New  York,  1856. 


12  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

the  custom,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  was  general,  or  that  it  was  adhered  to 
very  strictly,  even  among  the  tribes  in  which  it  can  be  said  to  have  pre 
vailed,  is  not,  for  a  moment,  admitted.  Take,  for  example,  the  Iroquois  or 
Six  Nations,  the  only  people  among  whom,  so  far  as  I  know,  it  cannot  be 
shown  that  the  warriors  did  take  some  part  either  in  clearing  the  ground  or 
in  cultivating  the  crop,  and  we  find  that  even  among  them  the  work  was 
not  left  exclusively  to  the  women,  but  that  it  was  shared  by  the  children  and 
the  old  men,  as  well  as  the  slaves,  of  whom  ttiey  seem  to  have  had  a  goodly 
number.('9)  Singularly  enough,  too,  the  reason  given  by  the  old  chronicler 
why  the  men  took  no  part  in  the  labor,  i.  e.,  because  "they  were  always  at 
war  or  hunting,"  is  the  same  that  is  to-day  made  to  do  duty  in  justifying 
the  existence  of  a  similar  condition  of  affairs  among  people  who  boast  not 
a  little  of  their  civilization. 

Among  most  of  the  other  tribes  north  of  the  Ohio  and  south  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  Huron  as  well  as  Algonquin,  the  men  not  only  habitually  cleared 
the  ground(20) — no  small  undertaking,  be  it  understood,  in  a  heavily  timbered 
region- — but  they  frequently  took  part  in  what  is  technically  known  as  "work 
ing"  the  crop,  and  also  aided  in  the  labors  of  the  harvest  field.  This  may 
not  have  been  a  part  of  their  duty,  but  we  have  the  authority  of  Charlevoix 
for  saying  that  when  asked  to  aid  in  gathering  the  crop  "they  did  not  scorn 
to  lend  a  helping  hand."(21)  On  this  point,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  make 
haste  slowly,  as  our  guides  not  only  contradict  each  other,  but  are  very  often 
at  odds  with  themselves,  and  it  requires  some  judgment  to  pick  our  way 
amid  the  conflicting  statements.  As  an  instance  of  some  of  the  least  of  the 
difficulties  that  beset  our  path  at  this  stage  of  the  inquiry,  let  us  take  the 
younger  Bartram,  whose  account  of  his  travels  among  the  Indians  of  the 
Gulf  States  is  one  of  the  most  trustworthy  that  has  come  down  to  us. 

(19.)  "If  any  of  his  children  be  killed  or  taken  by  the  enemy,  he  is  presently  furnished  with  as  many 
slaves  as  he  hath  occasion  for:"  La  Hontan,  vol.  II,  p.  7:  London,  1703.  "Women  slaves  are  employed 
to  sow  and  reap  the  Indian  corn;  and  the  Men  slaves  have  for  their  business  the  Hunting  and  Shooting 
when  there  is  any  fatigue,  tho'  their  Masters  will  very  often  help  them:"  Ibid.,  p.  18.  "Therefore  the 
plantation  work,"  among  the  Iroquois,  "is  left  for  the  women  and  slaves  to  look  after: "  Lawson,  Carolina, 
p.  188:  London,  1718.  See  also  Lafitau,  vol.  II,  p.  308 :  Paris,  1724.  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  162:  London, 
1763.  Hennepin,  A  New  Discovery  of  a  Vast  Country,  &c.,  vol.  I,  pp.  43,  215,  and  234:  London,  1698. 
John  Bartram,  p.  79:  London,  1751.  By  almost  all  of  the  old  chroniclers  "captive"  and  "slave"  are 
used  as  convertible  terms. 

(20.)  "Ce  sont  les  hommes  par  toute  1'  Amerique  qui  sont  charge's  de  marquer  les  champs  et  d'en  abattre 
les  gros  arbres.  Ce  sont  eux  aussi,  qui  en  tout  temps  sont  obliges  de  couper  le  gros  bois,"  &c.:  Lafitau, 
Moeurs  des  Sauvages  Ameriquains,  vol.  II,  p.  109:  Paris,  1724.  "The  qualifications  of  man  *  *  *  to 
build  cottages  to  fell  trees,"  &c.:  La  Hontan,  Voyages,  vol.  II,  p.  9:  London,  1703.  Compare  La  Potherie, 
vol.  Ill,  p.  18:  Paris,  1753. 

(21.)  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  237:  London,  1763 


THE    MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  13 

Time  and  again,  in  the  course  of  his  narrative,  he  speaks  of  the  part  taken 
by  the  men  in  the  work  of  raising  corn,(22)  and  yet,  on  page  513,  he  tells  us 
that  they  "  perform  nothing  except  erecting  their  mean  habitations,  forming 
their  canoes,  stone  pipes,  tambour,  eagle's  tail,  or  standard,  and  some  other 
trifling  matters,  for  war  and  hunting  are  their  principal  employments."  In 
Vander  Donck's  New  Netherlands  there  is  an  instance  even  more  to  the 
point,  though  it  is  by  no  means  an  extreme  case.  On  one  page  he  tells  us 
that  the  Indians  "subsist  by  hunting  and  fishing  throughout  the  year," 
having  apparently  forgotten  that  in  a  previous  chapter  he  had  said  that 
"mush  or  sapaen"  was  their  common  food,  and  that  they  rarely  pass  a  day 
without  it  unless  they  are  on  a  journey  or  hunting. (23)  Strictly  speaking, 
the  statements  in  the  first  of  these  instances  are  not  contradictory,  for  our 
author  is  speaking  of  manufactures  when  he  says  the  men  do  "nothing, 
&c. ;"  and  it  is  possible,  in  that  latitude,  for  a  man  to  raise  a  crop  of  corn 
and  work  it  well,  too,  and  yet  spend  the  most  of  his  time  hunting  and  fight 
ing.  To  admit,  this,  however,  is  to  credit  the  old  chronicler  with  a  degree 
of  refinement  in  the  use  of  language  to  which  he  is  believed  to  have  been 
an  utter  stranger.  In  the  second  instance,  there  is  no  room  for  any  such 
compromise.  The  two  statements  conflict,  and  cannot  be  reconciled  by  any 
amount  of  verbal  hair-splitting.  In  neither  case,  be  it  observed,  do  the 
facts  justify  the  inference  that  the  field  work  was  left,  exclusively,  to  the 
women,  as  that  conclusion  is  manifestly  impossible,  so  long  as  it  is  admitted 
that  the  men  took  any  part  in  the  labor,  be  it  ever  so  small,  at  any  stage 
of  the  process ;  and  yet  it  is  precisely  upon  these  and  similar  statements 
that  this  conclusion  is  based.  Without  stopping  now  to  inquire  into  the 
rationale  of  these  contradictions,  sometimes  only  apparent,  but  often  very 
real,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  say  that  they  have  not  sprung  from  any  wish 
to  mislead,  but  have  rather  grown  out  of  the  fact  that  when  these  old 
writers  began  to  generalize,  they  fell  into  the  common  error  of  failing  to 
make  due  allowance  for  the  many  exceptions  to  the  rule  they  were  laying 
down.  In  all  such  cases  the  true  way  out  of  the  difficulty  is  not  to  accept 
one  statement  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other;  neither  will  it  aid  us  to  offset 
one  by  the  other,  and  so  reject  both,  but  rather  we  ought  to  qualify  the 
general  conclusion  by  the  exceptions,  and  thus  bring  it  within  the  bounds 

(22.)  Travels  through  North  and  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  East  and  West  Florida,  &c.,  pp.  194,  512, 
517:  Philadelphia,  1791. 

(23.)  Vander  Donck's  New  Netherlands,  in  Collections  New  York  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  I,  of  new  series,  pp. 
J93  and  197. 


14  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

marked  out  by' the  facts.  Believing  this  to  be  the  true  method  of  pursuing 
this  investigation,  it  will  be  incumbent  on  me  to  examine  into  the  history 
of  each  tribe  or  group  of  tribes  separately,  in  order  to  find  out  whether  the 
men,  i.  e.,  the  warriors,  took  any  part  in  the  field  work,  and  if  so,  to  what 
extent.  If,  in  the  course  of  the  inquiry,  it  should  be  shown  that,  in  any 
tribe,  at  any  time,  the  men  did  take  some  part  in  this  work,  no  matter  how 
insignificant  it  may  have  been,  then  it  is  evident  that  at  that  time,  in  that 
particular  tribe,  the  field  work  was  not  left  exclusively  to  the  women,  what 
ever  may  be  said  to  the  contrary  by  the  author  who  tells  the  story.  It  must 
not,  however,  be  forgotten  that,  although  this  statement  as  to  the  actual 
condition  of  a  large  majority  of  the  tribes  living  east  of  the  Mississippi 
and  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence  is  believed  to  be  true,  yet  it  is  not  denied 
that  there  were  many  instances  in  which  this  labor  was,  practically,  left  to 
the  women,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  men  were  away  from  home  hunting 
or  fighting.  This  fact  was,  unfortunately,  of  frequent  recurrence;  but  as  it 
was  the  result  of  an  accidental  and  not  of  a  permanent  condition  of  affairs, 
it  would  hardly  be  fair  to  ascribe  it  to  the  existence  of  any  custom  or  to  any 
belief  in  the  derogatory  character  of  the  work. 

Beginning  with  the  Hurons,  of  Canada,  we  find  that  in  A.  D.  1535  a 
band  of  the  Iroquois  branch  of  that  family  was  living  in  the  stockaded 
village  of  Hochelaga,  now  Montreal.  According  to  Cartier  (24)  "they  had 
good  and  large  fields  full  of  corn,  *  *  which  they  preserved  in  garrets 
at  the  top  of  their  houses."  He  also  tells  us  that  they  are  "given  to  hus- 
bandrie,  *  *  *  but  are  no  men  of  great  labor;  and  that  they  digge  their 
ground  with  certain  pieces  of  wood  as  big  as  halfe  a  sword,  on  which  ground 
groweth  their  corne."  The  women  are  said  "to  work  more  than  the  men 
*  *  *  in  tilling  and  husbanding  the  ground."  Champlain,(25)  A.  D.  1610, 
speaking  of  this  same  family  of  tribes,  especially  of  those  living  north  of 
'the  St.  Lawrence,  and  in  the  peninsula  lying  between  Lakes  Huron,  Erie, 
and  Ontario,  repeats,  substantially,  what  is  said  about  their  houses  and 
fortified  villages,  (26)  and  adds  that  most  of  them  cultivated  corn,  which  was 
their  principal  article  of  food,  and  which  they  also  exchanged  for  skins  with 

(24.)  Cartier  in  Hakluyt's  Voyages,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  271,  et  seq. :  London,  1810. 
(25.)  Voyages  de  Champlain,  Livre  Quatrieme,  chapter  VIII:  Paris,  1632. 

(26.)  Compare  Relation  de  la  Nouvelle  France  en  1'annee,  1626,  p.  2:  Quebec,  1858.  Lafitau,  Moeurs 
des  Sauvages  Ameriquains,  vol.  II,  pp.  3,  et  seq.:  Paris,  1724.  La  Hontan,  Voyages,  vol.  II,  p.  6:  London, 
1703.  Charlevoix,  Letters,  pp.  240-241:  London,  1763.  Sagard,  Voyage  des  Hurons,  pp.  115-117:  Paris, 
1C32, 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY.  15 

the  hunter  tribes  living  to  the  north.  They  stored  it  in  the  tops  of  their 
houses,  and  cultivated  it  in  quantities,  so  that  they  might  have  on  hand  a 
supply  large  enough  to  last  three  or  four  years,  in  case  of  the  failure  of  the 
crop  in  some  bad  season.(27)  The  women  are  said  to  have  cultivated  the 
ground  and  planted  corn,  whilst  the  men  hunted,  fished,  went  to  war,  and 
built  their  cabins.  When  this  was  done,  they  went  off  on  trading  expedi 
tions  among  other  tribes,  sometimes  extending  their  trips  to  the  distance  of 
four  or  five  hundred  leagues.  All  this  is  confirmed  by  Sagard,(28)  who  adds 
some  interesting  details  as  to  the  tenure  of  lands(29)  and  the  method  of  cul 
tivating  the  corn.  He  also  tells  us  that  the  men  cleared  the  ground,  and 
that  this  was  done  with  great  difficulty,  as  they  had  no  suitable  implements 
with  which  to  work.  This  process  was  the  same  among  all  the  Indian  tribes, 
and  as  it  is  practically  in  use  to-day  by  the  white  settlers  on  our  frontiers, 
his  account  of  it  is  translated  in  full.  "The  Indians,"  he  says,  "belt  (cou- 
pent)  the  trees  about  two  or  three  feet  from  the  ground,  then  they  trim  off 
all  the  branches  and  burn  them  at  the  foot  of  the  tree  in  order  to  kill  it,  and 
afterwards  they  take  away  the  roots.  This  being  done,  the  women  carefully 
clean  up  the  ground  between  the  trees,  and  at  every  step  they  dig  a  round 
hole,  in  which  they  sow  nine  or  ten  grains  of  maiz,  which  they  have  first 
carefully  selected  and  soaked  for  some  days  in  water."  (3°) 

Among  the  Iroquois  or  Six  Nations,  after  they  took  up  their  residence 

(27.)  Voyages  de  Champlain,  p.  301 :  Paris,  1632.  "  Cultivent  des  champs  dout  ils  tirent  a  suffisance 
pour  leur  nourriture  de  toute  1'Annee:"  Relation  de  la  Nouvelle  France  en  1'annee,  1636,  p.  118.  See 
also  Relation  en  1'annee,  1626,  p.  2:  Quebec,  1858.  "The  Hurons,  more  laborious,  of  more  foresight,  and 
more  used  to  cultivate  the  earth,  act  with  greater  prudence,  and  by  their  labor  are  in  a  condition  not  only 
to  subsist  without  any  help,  but  also  to  feed  others ;  but  this,  indeed,  they  will  not  do  without  some  recom 
pense:"  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  175:  London,  1763.  "Evidences  of  their  agricultural  habits  may  still  be 
traced  in  the  large  spaces  which  were  cultivated,  and  which  are  yet  conspicuous: "  Schoolcraft,  Indian 
Tribes  of  the  United  States,  vol.  VI,  p.  201.  "  Et  continuent  ainsi,  jusques  a  ce  qu '  ils  en  ayent  pour 
deux  on  trois  ans  de  provision,  soit  pour  la  craintequ'il  ne  leur  succede  quelque  niauvaise  annee,  ou 
bien  pour  Taller  traicter  en  d'  autres  Nations  pour  des  pelleteries  ou  autres  choses  qui  leur  font  besoin: " 
Sagard,  Voyage  des  Hurons,  p.  134:  Paris,  1632. 

(28.)  Voyage  des  Hurons:  Paris,  1632. 

(29.)  "  Leur  contume  est,  que  chaque  mesnage  vit  de  ce  qu '  il  pesche,  chasse  et  seme  ayans  autant  de 
terre  comme  il  leur  est  necessaire ;  car  toutes  les  forets,  prairies  et  terres  non  defrischees  sont  en  commun, 
et  est  .permis  a  un  chacun  d '  en  defrischer  et  ensemencer  autant  qu'  il  veut,  qu'  il  peut  et  qu '  il  luy  est 
necessaire;  et  cette  terre  ainsi  defrischee  demeure  a  la  personne  autant  d'annees  qu'il  continue  de  la 
cultiver  et  s'en  servir,  et  estant  entitlement  abandounee  du  maistre  s'  en  sert  par  apres  qui  veut  et  non 
antrement:"  Sagard,  Voyage  des  Hurons,  p.  133:  Paris,  1632.  The  Hurons  agree  among  themselves  "to 
allot  each  Family  a  certain  compass  of  ground,  so  that  when  they  arrive  at  the  place  they  divide  them 
selves  into  Tribes.  Each  Hunter  fixes  his  house  in  the  center  of  that  Ground  which  is  his  district:  "  La 
Hontan,  vol.  II,  p.  59:  London,  1703. 

(30.)  Voyage  des  Hurons,  p.  134:  Paris,  1632.  Compare  Adair,  History  of  the  North  American  Indians, 
p.  405:  London,  1775.  Smith,  Virginia  in  Purchas'  Pilgrims,  vol.  IV,  p.  1696:  London,  1625.  Voyages 
de  Champlain,  pp.  73,  86:  Paris,  1632. 


16  THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

in  Western  New  York,  our  accounts  are  not  less  full  and  explicit.  Those 
grim  warriors,  thanks  to  the  ill-advised  interference  of  Champlain  (A. 
D.  1609-'10),  in  their  quarrel  with  the  Adirondack^,  lived  in  a  chronic 
state  of  hostility  to  the  French,  whose  pathway  to  the  Ohio  they  effect 
ually  barred. (3I)  Expeditions  were  repeatedly  fitted  out  against  them,  but 
always  with  the  same  barren  results.  A  few  villages  wrere  burned,  some 
times  by  .the  savages  themselves,  to  prevent  their  falling  into  the  hands 
of  the  whites,  and  the  adjacent  corn-fields  were  destroyed;  but  the  power 
of  the  confederacy  remained  unbroken.  Champlain  began  this  system  of 
destructive  inroads  at  an  early  period ;  in  1687  Denonville  improved  upon 
his  teaching,  and  later  on,  in  A.  D.  1779,  the  Americans  took  up  the 
work  and  showed  themselves  to  be  apt  scholars.  In  this  year  General 
Sullivan,  at  the  head  of  an  American  army,  invaded  their  country,  and 
is  said  to  have  destroyed  160,000  bushels  of  corn,  and  to  have  cut  down 
in  one  orchard  alone  fifteen  hundred  apple  trees.(32)  Large  as  was  the 
amount  of  property  destroyed  at  this  time,  it  was  but  a  fraction  of  the 
destruction  wrought  by  the  French  under  Denonville  in  1687.  In  the 
course  of  that  one  invasion  four  villages  of  the  Senecas  were  burned,  and, 
including  the  corn  in  cache  and  what  was  standing  in  the  fields,  400,000 
minots  or  twelve  hundred  thousand  bushels  of  grain  were  destroy ed.(33) 
This  amount  is  doubtlessly  much  exaggerated,  but  that  it  was  very  large 
is  evident  from  the  statements  of  Tonti(34)  and  La  Hontan,(35)  both  of 
whom  took  part  in  the  expedition.  According  to  the  former,  they  were 
for  seven  days  engaged  in  cutting  up  the  corn  belonging  to  the  four  vil 
lages.  The  latter  author  puts  the  time  consumed  in  this  work  at  five  or 
six  days,  and  by  way  of  showing  the  uselessness  of  such  destruction,  he 
makes  one  of  their  Indian  allies  remark  rather  cynically  that  "the  Tson- 
nontonans  did  not  matter  the  spoiling  of  the  corn,  for  that  the  other  Iroquois 
nations  were  able  to  supply  them."  These  extracts  will  give  some  idea  of 

(31.)  La  Hontan,  vol.  I,  p.  24:  London,  1703.  Loskiel,  Mission  in  America,  p.  137:  London,  1794. 
Among  the  expeditions  sent  against  them,  besides  those  mentioned  in  the  text,  note  particularly  those 
in  1665  under  Courcelles,  in  1666  under  de  Tracy,  in  1684  under  de  la  Barre,  and  in  1692  and  1696  under 
Frontenac. 

(32.)  History  of  New  York  during  the  Revolutionary  War,  vol.  II,  p.  334:  New  York,  1879.  See,  also, 
Stone's  Life  of  Brant,  vol.  II,  chap.  I :  Albany,  1865,  for  an  account  of  the  immense  amount  of  corn,  &c., 
destroyed  at  this  time. 

(33.)  Charlevoix,  Histoire  de  la  Nouvelle  France,  vol.  II,  p.  355:  Paris,  1744.  Doc.  Hist,  of  New  York, 
first  series,  p.  238:  Albany,  1849. 

(34.)  Narrative  in  Historical  Collections  of  Louisiana,  part  I,  p.  70, 

(35.)  La  Hontan,  Voyages,  vol.  I,  p.  77:  London,  1703, 


THE    MOUNDS   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY.  17 

the  extent  to  which  com  was  grown  among  these  tribcs,(36)  and  will  justify 
the  use  of  much  stronger  language  than  Mr.  Morgan  employs  when  he 
declares  that  "it  cannot  be  affirmed  with  correctness  that  the  Indian  sub 
sisted  principally  by  the  chase."(37) 

As  to  the  manner  of  preserving  or  storing  this  grain  for  winter  use,  we 
are  not  left  in  the  dark.  In  addition  to  the  garrets  or  tops  of  their  houses 
and  cribs, (38)  they  were  in  the  habit  of  "burying  their  surplus  corn  and  also 
their  charred  green  corn  in  caches,  in  which  the  former  would  preserve 
uninjured  through  the  year,  and  the  latter  for  a  much  longer  period.  They 
excavated  a  pit,  made  a  bark  bottom  and  sides,  and  having  deposited  the 
corn  within  it,  a  bark  roof,  water-tight,  was  constructed  over  it,  and  the 
whole  covered  up  with  earth.  "(39) 

In  regard  to  the  field-work,  the  weight  of  evidence  inclines  to  the  conclu 
sion  that,  ever  since  the  arrival  of  the  whites,  it  has  been  in  the  hands  of  the 
women  and  slaves,  and  that  the  warriors  took  no  part  in  it,  neither  working 
the  crop,  nor  clearing  the  land,  as  their  congeners  in  Canada  were  in  the 
habit  of  doing.  Colclen(4°)  and  others(41)  assert  this  positively,  and  General 
Ely  S.  Parker,  himself  an  educated  Iroquois,  confirms  the  statement  in  an 
interesting  letter,  which  I  take  the  liberty  of  publishing  entire:  "I  do  not 
think  that  the  Iroquois  men,  at  the  time  to  which  you  refer,  ever  aided 
in  any  agricultural  operations  whatever.  Among  all  the  Indian  tribes, 
especially  the  more  powerful  ones,  the  principle  that  a  man  should  not 
demean  himself  or  mar  his  dignity  by  cultivating  the  soil  or  gathering  its 

(36.)  Iroquois  "reap  ordinarily  in  one  Harvest  as  much  as  serves  'em  for  two  years:"  Hennepin,  A 
new  Discovery  of  a  Vast  Country  in  America,  vol.  I,  p.  18:  London,  1698.  "  Cultivated  100  acres:  "  Ibid., 
p.  19.  "  Corn  plenty  among  different  tribes  of  the  Iroquois: "  Greenhalgh  (A.  D.  1667),  in  Doc.  Hist,  of 
New  York,  vol.  I,  p.  15.  "  Corn  has  ever  been  the  staple  article  of  consumption  among  the  Iroquois. 
They  cultivated  this  plant,  and  also  the  bean  and  the  squash,  before  the  formation  of  the  league.  *  *  * 
Raised  sufficient  quantities  of  each  to  supply  their  utmost  wants :"  Morgan,  League  of  the  Iroquois,  p. 
199 :  Rochester,  1851.  "  Village  field  consisting  oftentimes  of  several  hundred  acres  of  cultivated  land: " 
Ibid.,  p.  314. 

(37.)  League  of  the  Iroquois,  p.  199:  Rochester,  1851. 

(38.)  Lafitau,  vol.  II,  p.  80:  Paris,  1724. 

(39.)  League  of  the  Iroquois,  p.  319.  Mr.  Morgan  adds  that  "pits  of  charred  corn  are  still  found  near 
their  ancient  settlements.  Cured  venison  and  other  meats  were  buried  in  the  same  manner,  except  that 
the  bark  repository  was  lined  with  deer-skins."  As  to  caches  see,  also,  Hennepin,  I.  c.,  vol.  I,  p.  18:  Lon 
don,  1693.  Lafitau,  Moeursdes  Sauvages,  vol.  II,  p.  79:  Paris,  1724.  Loskiel,  Mission  in  America,  p.  68: 
London,  1794. 

(40.)  "  The  Indian  women  perform  all  the  Drudgery  about  their  houses ;  they  plant  the  corn,  and  labor 
it  in  every  respect  till  it  is  brought  to  the  table:"  History  of  the  Five- Nations,  p.  13:  London,  1747. 

(41.)  "  Women  never  plant  corn  among  us  as  they  do  among  the  Iroquois:  "  Lawson,  Carolina,  p.  188: 
London,  1718.     "The  wife  must  do  all  the  work  in  the  house  and  field: "  Loskiel,  Mission  in  America,  p. 
60:  London,  1794.     See  also  League  of  the  Iroquois,  p.  329:  Rochester,  1851, 
MEM.— VOL.  ii. — 2 


18  THE    MOULDS    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

product  was  most  strongly  inculcated  and  enforced.  It  was  taught  that 
a  man's  province  was  war,  hunting,  and  fishing.  While  the  pursuit  of 
agriculture,  in  any  of  its  branches,  was  by  no  means  prohibited,  yet,  when 
anv  man,  excepting  the  cripples,  old  men,  and  those  disabled  in  war  or 
hunting,  chose  to  till  the  earth,  he  was  at  once  ostracised  from  men's 
society,  classed  as  a  woman  or  squaw,  and  was  disqualified  from  sitting 
or  speaking  in  the  councils  of  his  people  until  he  had  redeemed  himself  by 
becoming  a  skillful  warrior  or  a  successful  hunter.  At  the  present  day, 
even,  some  of  the  western  tribes  require  that  one  shall  also  prove  himself 
an  expert  thief  or  robber  to  entitle  him  to  respect  and  consideration.  It  is 
within  my  recollection  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  Iroquois  men  did 
no  manual  labor  whatsoever,  because,  as  they  argued,  it  was  menial  and 
beneath  their  dignity.  It  is  only  quite  recently  that  agricultural  work  by 
men  has  become  general  among  this  people,  and  not  yet  are  women  driven 
altogether  from  the  field. 

"It  was  an  Iroquois  custom  to  use  captives  to  assist  their  women  in  the 
labors  of  the  field,  in  carrying  burdens,  and  in  doing  general  menial  labor; 
but  when  a  captive  proved  himself  possessed  of  what,  in  their  judgment, 
constituted  manly  qualities,  then  he  was  fully  adopted  and  admitted  to  all 
the  privileges  of  an  Iroquois. 

"You  may  possibly  call  to  mind  that  Brant,  the  elder,  a  great  Iroquois 
warrior,  and  Red  Jacket,  the  Iroquois  orator,  were  not  good  friends.  One 
was  renowned  both  in  war  and  council,  and  his  voice  was  ever  for  war; 
while  the  other  was  famous  only  in  council ;  his  voice  was  always  for  peace, 
and  in  no  sense  was  he  a  warrior.  In  a  general  council  of  the  magnates 
of  the  Six  Nations,  held  at  the  time  of  the  Miami  difficulties  in  the  North 
west,  Brant,  in  a  controversy  with  Red  Jacket,  in  which,  perhaps,  he  was 
being  worsted,  taunted  him  with  being  a  coward  and  a  squaw,  showing  how 
strong  had  been  his  early  education  respecting  the  qualities  essential  to  a 
representative  Iroquois. 

"I  think  you  will  also  find  accounts  in  Colden's  History  of  the  Five 
Nations,  where  tribes  of  Indians  were,  or  had  been,  subjugated  by  the 
Iroquois,  and  reduced  to  the  condition  of  women,  and  were  formally  pro 
hibited  from  engaging  in  any  warlike  enterprises,  and  were  enjoined  to 
spend  their  time  and  energies  in  tilling  the  earth,  and  the  Iroquois  were 
accustomed  to  express  themselves  respecting  such  subjugated  tribes  like 
this:  'We  have  put  petticoats  upon  them,'  which  meant  that  thereafter 


THE    MOUNDS   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  19 

they  were  -required  to  do  only  servile  work.  This,  in  my  opinion,  was 
another  evidence,  that,  anciently,  the  Iroquois  men  did  not  do  any  agricul 
tural  labor." 

Per  contra  Charlevoix(42)  speaks  of  a  tradition  current  among  them,  to  the 
effect  that,  formerly — before  their  arrival  in  New  York — they  were  almost 
exclusively  occupied  in  husbandry,  and  were  bound  to  furnish  a  part  of 
their  harvest  to  the  Algonquins,  who,  in  their  turn,  agreed  to  supply  them 
with  a  certain  share  of  the  products  of  the  chase,  and  to  defend  them 
against  all  enemies  whatsoever.  He  adds  that  this  arrangement  was  very 
advantageous  to  both  parties,  but  that  in  the  estimation  of  the  Indians  it 
caused  the  Algonquins  to  rank  higher  than  the  Iroquois,  for  the  reason 
that  among  them  a  successful  hunter  is  on  a  level  with  a  great  warrior, 
and  inferentially  both  take  precedence  of  a  husbandman.  This,  however, 
is  but  tradition,  and  is  given  for  what  it  is  worth,  though  it  is  proper  to  say 
that  Charlcvoix  introduces  it  with  the  remark  that  it  is  the  only  part  of 
Iroquois  history  that  has  come  down  to  us  clothed  with  any  appearance  of 
probability,  and  that  both  Colden(43)  and  Morgan(44)  give  place  to  the  story. 
Without  stopping  now  to  inquire  into  its  truth  or  falsity,  we  may  be  very 
sure  that  during  the  whole  of  the  seventeenth  and  part  of  the  eighteenth 
centuries,  the  Iroquois  warrior  had  but  little  time  to  devote  to  agriculture. 
What  with  fighting  the  French  and  Hurons  on  the  North;  the  Miamis 
and  Illinois  on  the  West ;  the  Cherokees,  Catawbas,  and  Shawnees  on  the 
South,  to  say  nothing  of  his  immediate  neighbors  in  New  England  on  the 
East,  it  would  seem  as  if  his  hands  were  so  full  as  to  leave  but  little  time 
for  hunting,  much  less  for  raising  corn ;  and  that  under  the  circumstances 

(42.)  Clmrlevoix  Letters,  pp.  124,  ct  seq.:  London,  1763.  La  Potherie  tells  the  same  story,  but  gives  it 
as  a  fact.  See  Historic  de  1' Amerique,  vol.  I,  pp.  188,  ct  seq.:  Paris,  1753.  The  same  author,  vol.  Ill,  p. 
18,  asserts  that  the  men  did  clear  the  ground,  fence  in  the  fields,  and  prepare  the  bunches  of  corn  for 
drying.  He  also  adds  that  Avhen  husband  and  wife  are  much  attached  to  each  other,  they  do  not  sepa 
rate  their  work,  though  ordinarily  they  do  not  concern  themselves  about  each  other's  duties.  Lafitau, 
vol.  II,  p.  78,  says  that  the  men  braided  the  corn  into  bunches,  and  adds  that  it  is  the  only  occasion  on 
which  the  women  call  on  the  men  for  help. 

(43.)  "The  Adirondacks  *  *  *  employed  themselves  wholly  in  Hunting,  and  the  Five  Nations 
made  planting  of  Corn  their  Business.  By  this  means  they  became  useful  to  each  other  by  exchanging 
Corn  for  Venison.  The  Adirondacks,  however,  valued  themselves  as  delighting  in  a  more  manly  employ 
ment,  and  despised  the  Five  Nations  in  following  Business  which  they  thought  only  fit  for  Women : " 
History  of  the  Five  Nations,  p.  22:  London,  1747. 

(44.)  "Tradition  informs  us  that,  prior  to  their  occupation  of  New  York,  they  resided  in  the  vicinity 
of  Montreal,  upon  the  northern  bank  of  the  St.  Laurence,  where  they  lived  in  subjection  to  the  Adiron 
dacks,  a  branch  of  the  Algonquin  race:"  League  of  the  Iroquois,  p.  5:  Rochester,  1851.  Compare  this 
with  the  following  statement  of  Father  Le  Jeune  in  Relation  de  la  Nouvelle  France  en  I'anne'e,  1636, 
p.  46 :  "  Les  sauvages  m '  ont  monstre  quelques  endroits  ou  les  Hiroquois  ont  autrefois  cultive"  la  terre." 


20  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

"the  plantation  work,"  as  the  old  chronicler  has  it,  must  have  been  "left 
to  the  women  and  slaves"  as  a  matter  of  necessity. (4S) 

As  might  have  been  expected  in  a  people  who  had  developed  such 
capacity  for  the  management  of  military  and  political  affairs,  we  find 
that  the  ideas  of  property  had  taken  definite  shape,  and  that  the  rights 
of  individuals  were  duly  respected.  In  fact,  some  of  their  regulations, 
notably  those  in  relation  to  the  property  of  married  women,  (4<5)  might  be 
copied  with  advantage  in  some  of  the  States  of  our  favored  Republic.  In 
regard  to  the  tenure  of  land,  we  are  told  that  no  individual  could  obtain  an 
absolute  title,  "but  he  could  reduce  unoccupied  lands  to  cultivation  to  any 
extent  he  pleased;  and  so  long  as  he  continued  to  use  them,  his  right  to 
their  enjoyment  was  protected  and  secured.  He  could  also  sell  his  improve 
ments  or  bequeath  them  to  his  wife  and  children. "(47) 

Turning  now  to  the  tribes  of  the  Algonquin  family,  and  beginning  with 
those  that  lived  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  east  of  the  Hudson, -we  can 
not  but  be  struck  with  the  similarity  of  their  condition  to  that  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  existed  among  the  Hurons.  Champlain,(48)  who  visited  this 
coast  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  found  corn  in  cultivation 
from  the  "Kinnebequy"  to  Cape  Mallebarre,  near  the  southeastern  extrem 
ity  of  Cape  Cod.  At  Chacouet  (Saco)  he  saw  the  natives  cultivating  the 
ground,  "which  was  a  thing  he  had  not  seen  before,  using  for  that  purpose 
small  implements  of  hard  wood  made  like  a  spade."  In  the  neighborhood 
of  Cape  Mallebarre  they  are  said  to  have  been  very  industrious  ("fort 
amateurs  du  labourage")  and  to  have  provided  a  supply  of  corn  for  winter 
use,  which  they  stored  in  caches.  (49)  They  lived  in  stockaded  forts,  (5°)  and 

(45.)  Lawson,  Carolina,  p.  188:  London,  1718. 

(46.)  "  The  rights  of  property,  of  both  husband  and  wife,  were  continued  distinct  during  the  existence 
of  the  marriage  relation:  the  wife  holding  and  controlling  her  own  the  same  as  her  husband,  and  in  case 
of  separation  taking  it  with  her.  *  *  *  If  the  wife  either  before  or  after  marriage  inherited  orchards, 
or  planting  lots,  or  reduced  land  to  cultivation,  she  could  dispose  of  them  at  her  pleasure,  and  in  case  of 
her  death,  they  were  inherited,  together  with  her  other  effects,  by  her  children : "  Morgan,  League  of 
the  Iroquois,  p.  326:  Rochester,  1851.  Schoolcraft,  Notes  on  the  Iroquois,  p.  88:  New  York,  1846.  La 
Potherie,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  33,  et  seq.:  Paris,  1753. 

(47.)  League  of  the  Iroquois,  p.  326 :  Rochester,  1851. 

(48.)  Voyages  de  Charnplain,  chapters  IV,  V,  VI,  and  VII :  Paris,  1632.  Compare  Lescarbot,  Nouvelle 
France,  pp.  777-834-836:  Paris,  1712.  Also,  Relation  de  la  Nouvelle  France  en  1'aunee,  1611-1613: 
Quebec,  1858. 

(49.)  Voyages  de  Champlain,  p.  90 :  Paris,  1632. 

(50.)  De  Laet  in  New  York  Hist.  Coll.,  first  series,  vol.  I,  p.  307.  Champlain,  p.  74:  Paris,  1632. 
Lescarbot,  book  V,  p.  632 :  Paris,  1712.  Williams,  Key  to  the  Indian  Language,  in  vol.  I,  Rhode  Island 
Hist.  Coll.,  p.  92.  Vincent,  Pequot  War  in  Massachusetts  Hist,  Coll.,  vol.  VI  of  third  series,  p.  39. 
Purchas  Pilgrims,  vol.  IV,  p.  1844 :  London,  1625, 


THE   MOUNDS   OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 

made  slaves  of  their  prisoners,  especially  of  the  women  and  children,  (SI) 
as  was  the  custom  among  other  tribes  belonging  to  this  family.(52)  In  1614 
Capt.  Smith  explored  this  coast,  and  makes  mention  of  "the  gardens  and 
corn-fields  which  he  saw  planted  on  those  sandy  cliffs  and  cliffs  of  rocks.  "(S3) 
He  also  bears  witness  to  the  quantities  of  corn  grown  in  that  region  when 
he  undertakes,  for  a  few  trifles,  "to  have  enough  from  the  salvages  for  three 
hundred  men"  until  the  colony  should  become  self-supporting. (54)  Roger 
Williams,  A.  D.  1643,  on  the  same  subject  says  "that  the  women  of  the 
family  will  commonly  raise  two  or  three  heaps  of  twelve,  fifteen,  or  twenty 
bushels  a  heap,  *  *  *  and  if  she  have  the  help  of  her  children  or  friends, 
as  much  more."  He  also  adds,  that  "sometimes  the  man  himself  (either 
out  of  love  to  his  wife  or  care  for  his  children,  or  being  an  old  man)  will 
help  the  woman,  which,  by  the  customs  of  the  country,  they  are  not  bound 
to.  When  a  field  is  to  be  broken  up  they  have  a  very  loving,  sociable, 
speedy  way  to  dispatch  it;  all  the  neighbors,  men  and  women,  forty,  fifty, 
a  hundred,  do  joyne  and  come  in -to  help  freely.  With  friendly  joyning  they 
break  up  their  fields  and  build  their  forts. "(55)  Among  themselves  they 
bartered  their  corn,  skins,  and  venison,  (s6)  and  they  also  carried  on  more 
or  less  trade  with  other  nations  in  shell  beads(57)  (wampum),  and  also  in 
pipes,  which  latter  article  is  said  usually  "to  come  from  the  Mauquaw- 
wop(58)  or  men-eaters,  three  or  four  hundred  miles  from  us."  The  right 
of  property  was  recognized  in  land,(59)  and  their  fields  as  well  as  the  dis- 

(51.)  Lescarbot,  Nouvelle  France,  book  VI,  pp.  798  and  859 :  Paris,  1712. 

(52.)  Lafitau,  Moeurs  des  Sauvages  Arneriquains,  vol.  I,  p.  563,  and  vol.  II,  p.  308:  Paris,  1724. 
Lawson,  Carolina,  pp.  198-232:  London,  1718.  Marquette  in  Discovery  and  Exploration  of  the  Missis 
sippi,  by  John  G.  Shea,  p.  32 :  New  York,  1852.  Charlevoix,  Histoire  de  la  Nouvelle  France,  vol.  IV,  pp. 
104,  105,  and  p.  156,  where  the  Outagamis,  as  a  condition  of  peace,  propose  to  replace  all  the  killed  of 
their  enemies  by  slaves  whom  they  are  to  capture  from  distant  nations :  Paris,  1744. 

(53.)  Description  of  New  England  in  Collections  of  Mass.  Hist.  Society,  vol.  VI  of  third  series,  p.  108. 

(54.)  Ibid.,  p.  113. 

(55.)  Williams,  Key,  pp.  92  and  93.  "Their  food  is  pulse,  *  *  *  which  is  here  better  than  else 
where,  and  more  carefully  cultivated  :"  Verrezano,  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  I  of  new  series,  p.  49.  "Their 
food  is  generally  boiled  maize  or  Indian  corn : "  Gookin,  History  of  the  New  England  Indians  in  Coll. 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  vol  I  of  first  series,  p.  150.  " Taking  all  his"  (King  Philip's)  "  cattle  and  hogs  that  they 
could  find,  and  also  took  possession  of  Mount  Hope,  which  had  then  a  thousand  acres  under  corn:" 
Drake,  Indians  of  North  America,  p.  209,  fifteenth  edition.  "Indians  came  down  to  Windsor  and  Hart 
ford  with  fifty  canoes,  at  one  time,  laden  with  Indian  corn :"  Trumbull,  Connecticut,  vol.  I,  p.  88:  Hart 
ford,  1797.  On  Block  Island,  Indians  had  "about  200  acres  of  corn:"  Drake,  Indians  of  North  America, 
p.  116.  See  also  Winslow,  Good  News  from  New  England,  in  Purchas  Pilgrims:  London,  1625. 

(56.)  Williams,  Key  to  the  Indian  Language,  in  vol.  I,  Coll.  Rhode  Island  Hist.  Soc.,  p.  133. 

(57.)  Lafitau,  Moeurs  des  Sauvages  Ameriquains,  vol.  1,  p.  503:  Paris,  1724. 

(58.)  Probably  Mohawk.     See  Drake,  Indians  of  North  America,  p.  221,  fifteenth  edition. 

(59.)  "I  have  known  them  make  bargaine  and  sale  amongst  themselves  for  a  small  piece  or  quantity  of 
land:"  Williams,  Key,  p.  89. 


2  THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

trict  within  which  each  man  might  hunt  were  clearly  defined^60)  They 
also  seem  to  have  arrived  at  that  stage  of  development  in  which  the 
advantages  of  a  division  of  labor  are  recognized,  for  we  are  told  that  "they 
have  some  who  follow  only  making  of  Bowes,  some  Arrows,  some  Dishes 
(and  the  women  make  all  their  earthen  vessels) ;  some  follow  fishing,  some 
hunting:  most  on  the  seaside  make  money,"  i.  e.,  wampum.  "As  many 
make  it  as  will."(6') 

Among  the  tribes  living  in  Southeastern  New  York,  and  along  the  Hud 
son,  there  does  not  seem  to  have  been  any  lack  of  corn.  Hudson,  A.  D. 
1609,  states  that  in  latitude  42°  18',  near  where  the  town  bearing  his  name 
now  stands,  he  saw  "a  house  which  contained  a  great  quantity  of  maize  or 
Indian  corn  and  beans  of  last  year's  growth,  and  there  lay  near  the  house 
for  the  purpose  of  drying  enough  to  load  three  ships,  besides  what  was 
growing  in  the  fields. "(62) 

The  work  of  tilling  the  ground  was  left  to  the  women,  who  had  the 
assistance  of  the  old  men  and  the  children. (6s)  The  warriors  are  said  to 
have  been  extravagantly  inclined  to  hunting  and  fishing,  (*4)  though  DeLaet 
tells  us  that  "they  are  very  serviceable,  and  allow  themselves  to  be  em 
ployed  in  many  things  for  quite  a  small  compensation.  (6s)  They  lived  in 
stockaded  villages,  and  had  forts  or  castles  near  their  corn  grounds  for 
refuge  in  case  of  the  sudden  irruption  of  small  marauding  parties  of  their 
enemies.  "(66) 

New  Jersey  and  Eastern  Pennsylvania  were  inhabited,  in  part,  by  differ 
ent  bands  of  the  same  tribes  that  held  the  country  adjacent  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Hudson.  They  occupied  both  banks  of  the  Delaware  or  "South" 

(60.)  "They  have  their  fields  distinct : "  Lescarbot  Livre  VI,  pp.  776,  836 :  Paris,  1712.  Williams,  Key, 
p.  141.  Winslow,  in  Purchas  Pilgrims,  p.  1869:  London,  1625. 

(61.)  Williams,  Key,  pp.  128  and  133. 

(62.)  Quoted  in  DeLaet,  Description  of  New  Netherlands,  p.  300.  "Great  store  of  Maize : "  Juet,  Journal 
of  Hudson's  Voyage,  p.  323.  "  They  raise  an  abundance  of  corn  and  beans,  of  which  we  obtain  whole 
cargoes  in  sloops  and  galleys  in  trade :  "  Vander  Donck,  New  Netherlands,  p.  209.  "  Their  common  food 
*  *  *  is  pap,  or  mush,  which  *  *  *  is  named  sapaen.  This  is  so  common  among  the  Indians 
that  they  seldom  pass  a  day  without  it,  unless  they  are  on  a  journey  or  hunting.  We  seldom  visit  an 
Indian  lodge  at  any  time  of  day,  without  seeing  their  sapaen  preparing,  or  seeing  them  eating  the  -same. 
It  is  the  common  food  of  all :"  Ibid.,  p.  193.  All  these  are  published  in  vol.  I,  new  series  of  the  Collec 
tions  of  the  New  York  Hist,  Society,  and  the  paging  refers  to  that  volume.  "Indian  corn  abundant:" 
Doc.  Hist,  of  New  York,  p.  22. 

(63.)  Vander  Donck,  New  Netherlands,  in  vol.  I,  new  series,  Hist.  Coll.  of  New  York,  p.  208. 

(64.)  Ibid.,  p.  209. 

(65.)  DeLaet,  Description  of  New  Netherlands,  in  vol.  I,  new  series,  Coll.  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.,  p.  301,  New 
York,  1841. 

(66.)  Vander  Donck,  I  c.,  p.  197. 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  2 

river,  lived  in  forts,  (67)  and  raised  corn  and  beans,  which  they  sold  to  the 
Sweedish  and  German  settlers.(6s)  Later,  about  the  year  1682,  Win.  Penn 
found  the  Delawares  and  Shawneesf9)  still  occupying  this  region,  and  it 
was  with  them  that  he  concluded  the  famous  treaty  of  which  it  has  been 
said  that  it  is  the  only  one  ever  made  that  was  not  ratified  by  an  oath,  and 
that  it  is  the  only  one  that  was  never  broken.  Speaking  of  their  manner 
of  life,  he  says  that  "  their  diet  is  maize  or  Indian  corn,  divers  ways  pre 
pared;  sometimes  roasted  in  the  ashes,  sometimes  beaten  and  boiled  with 
water,  which  they  call  hominy."(7°)  Loskiel,  A.  D.  1788,  takes  up  the 
story,  and  tells  us  that  corn  was  the  chief  product  of  their  plantations. (7I) 
He  also  says  that  "the  men  hunt  and  fish  and  provide  meat  for  the  house 
hold,  keep  their  wives  and  children  in  clothing,  build  and  repair  the  houses 
or  huts,  and  make  fences  around  the  plantations,  occasionally  assisting  in 
the  labors  of  the  field  and  garden. (72)  The  corn  is  stored  in  caches,  and 
they  keep  the  situation  of  these  caches  secret,  as  if  found  out  they  would 
have  to  supply  every  needy  neighbor."  This,  he  adds,  "may  occasion  a 
famine,  for  some  are  so  lazy  that  they  will  not  plant  at  all,  knowing  that 
the  more  industrious  cannot  refuse  to  divide  their  store  with  them."(73) 
They  also  did  more  or  less  barter,  especially  in  pipes,  the  material  for 
which,  a  red  marble,  is  rare,  and  found  only  on  the  Mississippi.  "A  more 
common  sort  is  made  of  a  kind  of  ruddle  dug  by  the  Indians  living  to  the 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  on  the  Marble  river,  who  sometimes  bring  it  to 
these  countries  for  sale."(74) 

At  this  point  it  seems  proper  to  refer,  briefly,  to  the  fact  noticed  by  Gen. 
Parker,  that  the  Delawares  were,  at  this  time,  a  conquered  tribe,  and  held 

(67.)  DeLaet,  7.  c.,  p.  303. 

(68.)  Kalm,  Travels,  vol.  I,  p.  397:  London,  1772.  Campanius,  History  of  New  Sweedland  in  vol.  I, 
Coll.  of  New  York  Hist  Soc.,  p.  346.  De  Vries  Voyages  in  vol.  I,  new  series  of  Coll.  of  New  York  Hist. 
Soc.,  p.  253. 

(69.)  Harvey,  History  of  the  Shawnee  Indians,  p.  1 :  Cincinnati,  1855.  This  tribe  is  said  to  have  been 
the  custodian  or  keeper  of  the  parchment  copy  of  the  great  treaty  of  1682.  At  least  they  had  it  in  1722> 
and  showjd  it  to  Gov.  Keith :  Hist,  of  Shawnees,  p.  32.  Parkraan,  in  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac,  II,  p.  229, 
says :  "  They  had  parchment  copies  of  treaties  with  Penn." 

(70.)  Penn's  Letter  quoted  in  Harvey's  History  of  the  Shawnee  Indians,  p.  14 :  Cincinnati,  1855. 

(71.)  Loskiel,  Mission  of  the  United  Brethren  among  the  Indians  of  North  America,  p.  66:  London, 
1794. 

(72.)  Ibid.,  p.  59. 
(73.)  Ibid.,  p.  68. 
(74.)  Ibid.,  p.  51.  Compare  Kalm,  Travels  II,  p.  42. 


24 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 


their  lands  on  sufferance.  In  the  figurative  language  of  the  Indians,  the 
iroquois  had  put  petticoats  on  them.  Whether  this  was  a  rhetorical  nour 
ish,  and  merely  meant  that  they  had  been  conquered,  or  whether  it  was 
intended  to  signify  that  the  Delaware  warriors  had  been  forbidden  to  take 
part  in  manly  pursuits,  and  were  restricted  to  the  occupations  usually  fol 
lowed  by  the  women,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say.  That  they  were  forbidden 
to  dispose  of  the  land  they  occupied  is  clear  from  the  speech  of  Canassa- 
tego,  an  Iroquois  sachem,  at  the  treaty  of  Lancaster,  A.  D.  1744 ;(75)  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  evident  that  the  Delaware  warrior  did  not 
hesitate  to  go  upon  the  war-path  whenever  it  suited  his  pleasure  to  do 
so.(76)  Probably  the  true  explanation  of  this  seeming  inconsistency  is  to 
be  found  in  the  fact  that  whilst  the  Delawares,  as  a  tribe,  were  prohibited 
from  exercising  any  of  the  rights  of  an  independent  people,  yet  the  indi 
vidual  warrior,  in  the  enjoyment  of  that  wide  personal  liberty  to  which 
every  Indian  east  of  the  Mississippi  seems  to  have  been  born,  consulted 
his  own  convenience  as  to  when  or  with  whom  he  should  fight,  and  when  or 
how,  if  at  all,  he  should  aid  the  women  in  the  work  of  cultivating  the  fields. 
In  Virginia,  among  the  tribes  composing  the  Powhatanic  confederacy  and 
the  adjoining  nations,  corn  was  raised  in  great  abundance,  though  there 
were  times  when,  owing  to  improvidence  or  a  failure  of  the  crops,  the 
Indians  suffered  more  or  less  from  want.  Capt.  Smith,  in  the  course  of  one 
of  the  many  expeditions  made  in  order  to  supply  the  starving  colonists  with 
food,  says  that  he  could  have  loaded  a  ship  with  it;(")  and  in  his  letter  to 
the  Queen  on  the  occasion  of  the  visit  of  the  "Lady"  Pocahontas  to  Eng 
land,  after  acknowledging  his  personal  obligations  to  that  "tender  virgin," 
he  tells  us  that  for  two  or  three  years  "shee  next  under  God,  was  still  the 
instrument  to  preserve  this  colonie  from  deathe,  famine,  and  utter  confu- 

(75.)  "We  conquered  you;  we  made  women  of  you;  you  know  you  are  women,  and  can  no  more  sell 
land  than  women:"  Golden,  History  of  the  Five  Nations,  vol.  II,  p.  80:  London,  17G7.  See  also  Speech 
of  John  Hudson,  the  Cayuga  Chief,  A.  D.  1758,  at  a  conference  held  at  Burlington,  in  Archreologia 
Americana,  vol.  II,  p.  48.  In  this  connection,  and  as  showing  the  similarity  of  customs  among  the 
Indians,  it  is  of  interest  to  note  that  the  Creeks  claimed  to  have  put  petticoats  upon  the  Cherokees,  and 
at  the  treaty  of  Augusta,  in  reply  to  the  statement  of  the  Georgians  "that  they  had  bought  a  certain  piece 
of  land  from  the  Cherokees,"  a  Creek  Chief  started  to  his  feet,  "and,  with  an  agitated  and  terrific  counte 
nance,  frowning  menaces  and  disdain,  fixed  his  eyes  on  the  Cherokee  Chiefs  and  asked  them  what  right 
they  had  to  give  away  their  lands,  calling  them  old  women,  and  saying  that  they  had  long  ago  obliged 
them  to  wear  the  petticoat: "  Bartram,  Travels  through  Florida,  p.  486:  Philadelphia,  1791. 

(76.)  Heekwelder,  Historical  Account  of  the  Indian  Nations,  including  the  Introduction,  where  this 
Subject  is  discussed  at  length  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Delawares. 

(77.)  Capt.  Smith,  News  from  Virginia,  p.  20  of  the  re-print  by  Charles  Dean,  Esq. :  Cambridge,  1866. 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  25 

sion."(78)  We  are  also  told  that  they  had  stockaded  forts,  (79)  and  that 
their  houses  were  built  in  the  midst  of  their  fields  or  gardens,  "which  are 
small  plots  of  ground,"  ranging  from  twenty  to  two  hundred  acres. (8o) 
Each  household  is  said  "to  know  their  own  lands  and  gardens,  and  must 
live  of  their  own  labors  ;"(8r)  and  the  limits  within  which  each  might  "fish, 
fowle,  or  hunt"  seem  to  have  been  not  less  accurately  determined. (82)  As 
to  the  part  taken  by  the  men  in  the  field  work,  our  authorities  are  not 
agreed.  According  to  Capt.  Smith,  who  is  not  very  clear  upon  this  point, 
the  women  plant  and  gather  the  corn,(83)  though  elsewhere  he  speaks  of  the 
"King  (Powhatan)  himself  making  his  own  robes,  shoes,  bowes,  arrowes, 
pots,  planting,  ajso  hunting,  and  doing  offices  no  less  than  the  rest."  His 
account  of  the  manner  of  making  a  "clearing"  is  also  somewhat  obscure, 
and  may  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  this  part  of  the  labor  was  performed 
by  the  men.  Be  this  as  it  may,  however,  other  writers  are  more  explicit. 
Hariot  and  Beverly  confirm  what  is  said  as  to  the  supply  of  corn;  and 
the  former  asserts  directly,  and  the  latter  by  implication,  that  the  men  did 
take  part  in  the  field  work.(84)  They  also  did,  more  or  less,  trade  among 
themselves,  exchanging,  among  other  things,  their  "countrie  corne"  for 
copper,  beads,  and  such  like.(8s)  Slavery  may  also  be  confidently  said  to 
have  existed  among  them;  for,  although  the  evidence  on  this  point  is  not 
as  full  and  clear  as  it  might  be,  yet  the  fact  is  plainly  deducible  from  the 

(78.)  Smith,  Virginia,  p.  121:  London,  1632.  "It  pleased  God,  after  awhile,  to  send  these  people 
*  *  *  to  relieve  us  with  victuals,  as  Bread,  Corne,  Fish,  and  Flesh  in  great  plenty,  which  was  the 
setting  up  of  our  feeble  men,  otherwise  we  all  had  perished.  Also  we  were  frequented  by  divers  Kings 
in  the  Countrie,  bringing  us  store  of  provision  to  our  great  comfort:"  Master  Geo.  Percy,  in  Purchas 
Pilgrims,  vol.  IV,  p.  1690:  London,  1625. 

(79.)  Capt.  Smith,  in  Purchas  Pilgrims,  vol.  IV,  pp.  1693-4 :  London,  1625.  Beverly,  Virginia,  book 
III,  p.  12:  London,  1705.  Hariot  in  Hakluyt,  Voyages,  vol.  Ill,  p.  329:  London,  1810. 

(80.)  Smith,  in  Purchas  Pilgrims,  vol.  IV,  p.  1698:  London,  1625. 

(81.)  Ibid.,  p.  1698. 

(82.)  Ibid.,  p.  1703.- 

(83.)  Ibid.,  pp.  1698,  1709  (vol.  IV). 

(84.)  "All  the  aforesaid  commodities"  (corn,  beans,  peaze,  &c.)  "for  victual  are  set  or  sowed  some 
time  in  grounds  apart  and  severally  by  themselves,  but  for  the  most  part  mixtly.  *  *  *  A  few  days 
before  they  sowe  or  set,  the  men  with  wooden  instruments,  made  almost  in  form  of  mattocks,  or  hoes  with 
long  handles;  the  women  with  short  pickers  or  parers,  because  they  use  them  sitting,  of  a  foot  long,  and 
about  five  inches  in  breadth,  doe  only  break  the  upper  part  of  the  ground  to  raise  up  the  weeds,  grasse, 
and  old  stubs  of  corn-stalks  with  their  roots:"  Hariot  in  Hakluyt,  Voyages,  vol.  Ill,  p.  329:  London,  1810. 
"Indian  corn  was  the  staff  of  Food  upon  which  the  Indians  did  ever  depend.  *  *  *  It  was  the  fami 
lies  dependance,  and  the  support  of  their  women  and  children:"  Beverly,  Virginia,  part  II,  p.  29: 
London,  1705.  At  their  corn  feast  they  boast  in  their  songs  "that  their  corne  being  now  gathered,  they 
have  store  enough  for  their  women  and  children;  and  have  nothing  to  do  but  go  to  war,  travel,  and  seek 
out  new  adventures:"  Ibid.,  part  III,  p.  43. 

(85.)  Capt.  Smith,  in  Purchas  Pilgrims,  vol  IV,  p.  1701 :  London,  1625. 


26  THE  MOUNDS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 

statement  that  "they  made  war,  not  for  lands  or  goods,  but  for  women  and 
children,  whom  they  put  not  to  death,"  but  kept  as  captives,  in  which 
capacity  they  were  made  "to  do  service. "(86) 

The  Carolinas  were  held  by  a  number  of  tribes  belonging  to  different 
linguistic  families,  though  with  but  little  or  no  difference  in  their  manners 
and  customs.  The  Tuscaroras,  a  Huron  tribe,  occupied  the  country  adja 
cent  to  the  Chowan  river  and  its  tributaries,  in  the  western  part  of  North 
Carolina,  until  about  the  year  1713-'15,  when,  owing  to  their  defeat  by  the 
whites,  and  the  destruction  of  their  fort,  they  fled  to  the  north,  and  took 
refuge  among  the  Iroquois,  forming  the  sixth  nation  in  that  confederacy.  (8?) 
In  the  western  part  of  South  Carolina  lived  the  Catawbas,  who  are  chiefly 
known  on  account  of  the  long  and  relentless  war  which  they  waged  against 
the  Iroquois.  They  were  extensively  engaged  in  growing  corn,  as  Adair 
speaks  of  one  of  their  old  fields  that  was  seven  miles  in  extent,  and  argues 
that  the  tribe  must  have  been  very  populous  to  cultivate  so  much  land  with 
their  dull  stone  axes.(88)  In  the  interior,  and  along  the  coast  of  these  two 
States,  there  dwelt  a  number  of  small  tribes,  whose  names  have  scarcely 
come  down  to  us.  In  1700-'!  Lawrson  traveled  through  this  region,  and 
much  that  we  know  of  the  people  who  then  lived  here  is  derived  from  his 
narrative.  From  it,  we  learn  that  they  cultivated  many  kinds  of  pulse,  part 
of  which  they  ate  green  in  summer,  keeping  great  quantities  for  their  winter 
supply.  (89)  This  they  stored  in  cribs  or  granaries,  which  were  sometimes 
built  on  eight  feet  or  posts,  about  seven  feet  high,  well  daubed  within  and 
without  with  loam.(9°)  The  young  men  worked  the  fields,  as  did  the  slaves, 
who,  we  are  told,  were  not  overworked. (9I)  The  women  never  planted  corn 
as  they  did  among  the  Iroquois.  (92)  There  were  no  fences  to  divide  the 
fields,  but  "every  man  knew  his  own;  and  it  scarce  ever  happens  that  they 
rob  one  another  of  so  much  as  an  ear  of  corn,  which  if  any  one  is  found  to 
do,  he  is  sentenced  by  the  elders  to  work  and  plant  for  him  that  was  robbed 
till  he  is  recompensed  for  all  the  damage  he  has  suffered  in  his  corn-field ; 

(86.)  Ibid.,  I.  c.,  pp.  1699,  1700.     "The  werowance,  women  and  children,  became  his  prisoners,  and  doe 
him  service:"  Ibid.,  p.  1704. 

(87.)  Archseologia  Americana,  vol.  II,  p.  80  et  seq. 

(88.)  Adair,  History  of  the  American  Indians,  p.  225:  London,  1775. 

(89.)  Lawson,  Carolina,  p.  207 :  London,  1718. 

(90.)  Ibid.,  pp.  17  and  177.  • 

(91.)  Ibid.,  pp.  179,  232, 198. 

(92.)  Lawson,  Carolina,  p.  188:  London,  1718. 


THE  MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  27 

and  this  is  punctually  performed,  and  the  thief  held  in  disgrace  that  steals 
from  any  of  his  country-folks. "(93)  In  the  case  of  a  woman  without  a  hus 
band,  and  with  a  great  many  children  to  maintain,  the  young  men  were 
obliged  to  plant  and  reap  and  do  every  thing  that  she  was  not  capable  of 
doing  herself.  They  do  not  allow  any  one  to  be  idle,  but  all  must  employ 
themselves  in  some  work  or  other.  (94)  They  bartered  pipes,  wooden  bowls 
and  ladles  with  neighboring  tribes  for  raw  skins. (95)  We  are  also  told  that 
the  poorer  sort  of  white  planters  often  got  them  to  plant,  by  hiring  them 
for  that  season,  or  for  so  much  work.(96) 

Of  the  tribes  that  inhabited  Florida,  including  under  that  title  Georgia, 
Tennessee,  Arkansas,  and  all  the  Gulf  States  except  Texas,  our  accounts 
are  very  full  and  explicit.  From  the  time  of  De  Soto,  A.  D.  1539,  and 
even  earlier, (97)  corn  was  grown  everywhere  in  great  abundance.  Indeed, 
but  for  the  quantities  seized  by  that  adventurer  during  the  three  or  four 
years  he  passed  in  rambling,  to  and  fro,  over  the  vast  region  traversed  by 
him  on  both  sides  of  the  Mississippi,  he  could  not  have  subsisted  his  horde 
of  ruthless  followers,  with  their  attendant  trains  of  captives  and  domestic 
animals.  (98)  La  Vega,  Biedma,  and  above  all  the  Knight  of  Elvas,  bear 
witness  to  this  fact  on  almost  every  page  of  their  narratives.  (")  We  are 
also  told  that,  on  both  sides  of  the  river,  the  natives  lived  in  walled 

(93.)  Ibid.,  p.  179. 
(94.)  Ibid.,  p.  179. 

(95.)  Ibid.,  pp.  58,  176,  208. 
(96.)  Ibid.,  p.  86. 

(97.)  Cabeca  de  Vaca,  in  Buckingham  Smith's  translation,  pp.  41-47:  New  York,  1871.  Hefrera,  His 
tory  of  America,  vol.  VI,  pp.  30,  31 :  London,  1740. 

(98.)  "We  landed  six  hundred  and  twenty  men  and  two  hundred  and  twenty-three  horses."  Narrative 
of  Biedma,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  II,  p.  97.  This  is  the  smallest  number  given  by  either  one 
of  the  chroniclers  of  this  expedition,  and  it  is  accepted  for  this  reason.  It  will  he  seen  that  no  mention 
is  made  of  the  drove  of  hogs,  though  it  must  have  been  large,  as  we  are  told,  1.  c.,  p.  104,  that  in  the 
attack  made  by  the  Indians  on  the  Spaniards  when  in  winter  quarters  at  Chica^a,  they  destroyed  "  three 
hundred  hogs,"  besides  fifty-seven  horses.  The  Gentleman  of  Elvas  says  "  fifty  horses  and  four  hundred 
hogs." 

(99.)  "In  the  barns  and  in  the  fields  great  store  of  maize.  *  *  *  Many  sown  fields  which  reached 
from  one  (town)  to  the  other,"  p.  152.  "  In  the  town  was  great  store  of  old  maize,  and  great  quantities  of 
new  in  the  fields,"  p.  172.  *  *  *  "The  maize  that  was  in  the  other  town  was  brought  hither;  and  in 
all  it  was  esteemed  to  be  six  thousand  harnegs  or  bushels,"  p.  203.  *  *  *  As  soon  as  they  came  to 
Cale;  the  Governor  commanded  them  to  gather  all  the  maize  that  was  ripe  in  the  fields,  which  was  suffi 
cient  for  three  months,"  p.  130:  Narrative  of  the  expedition  of  Hernando  de  Soto,  by  a  Gentleman  of 
Elvas,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  II.  "De  Soto  did  not  kill  any  of  his  hogs,  because  they  found 
plenty  of  provisions:"  Herrera,  vol.  V,  p.  312:  London,  1740.  "Caciquess"  of  Cofachiqui  "had  2,000 
bushels  of  maiz  in  one  of  her  towns:"  Ibid.,  p.  317. 


28  THE   MOUNDS   OP   THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

towns,  (I0°)  and  that  they  gathered  every  man  his  own  crop,  (I01)  which 
they  stored  in  barbacoas(102)  or  granaries,  made  somewhat  like  those  in 
Carolina. 

Passing  over  an  interval  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  years, 
and  coming  down  to  the  eighteenth  century,  we  find  the  condition  of  affairs 
in  all  that  region  practically  unchanged.  The  same  tribes,  with  scarcely  an 
exception,  that  held  the  country  east  of  the  Mississippi  in  the  time  of  De 
Soto  still  possessed  it,  and  lived  substantially  within  the  same  boundaries 
that  they  did  when  first  visited.  In  the  meantime,  the  Mississippi  had  been 
explored  from  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  to  its  mouth,  the  French  and  Eng 
lish  had  pushed  their  trading  posts  everywhere  throughout  the  valley,  and 
were  contending  for  the  possession  of  all  that  vast  domain;  but  the  Indians, 
save  when  brought  into  immediate  contact  with  the  whites,  still  pursued  the 
even  tenor  of  their  way,  and  hunted  and  fought,  danced  and  worshiped, 
much  as  their  ancestors  had  done  some  two  hundred  years  before.  They 
built  their  houses  and  fortified  their  villages  in  much  the  same  manner,  (I03) 
and  cultivated  their  fields  and  gardens  with  the  same  rude  and  unsatisfac 
tory  implements.(104)  In  all  this  they  did  not  differ  from  their  neighbors  to 
the  North;  in  fact,  so  similar  were  their  forms  of  government,  their  cus 
toms,  and  their  religious  beliefs,  that,  mutatis  mutandis,  the  accounts  given 
of  the  Hurons  and  Algonquins  might,  with  but  little  change,  be  applied  to 
the  tribes  living  south  of  the  Ohio.(105)  In  one  or  two  particulars,  however, 
there  seems  to  have  been  some  improvement,  notably  in  their  organized 
system  of  relief  for  the  poor  and  needy,  which  seems  to  have  existed  from 
the  earliest  period,  (Io6)  and  in  the  provision,  made  at  harvest  time,  for  the 
exercise  of  tribal  hospitality,  and  for  defraying,  what  may  be  justly  termed, 

(100.)  Gentleman  of  Elvas  and  Biedma,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  II,  pp.  103,  104  160,  172: 
Philadelphia,  1850.  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  seconde  partie,  pp.  19-37:  Paris,  1709. 

(101.)  A  brief  note,  *  *  *  taken  out  of  the  44th  chapter  of  the  Discovery  of  the  Inland  of  Florida 
on  the  backside  of  Virginia,  begun  by  Fernando  de  Soto,  A.  D.  1539,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  VIII,  third 
series,  p.  115. 

(102.)  Gentleman  of  Elvas,  1.  c.,  p.  137. 

(103.)  Du  Pratz,  History  of  Louisiana,  vol.  II,  p.  251:  London,  1763.  Dumont,  Memoir  in  Hist.  Coll. 
of  Louisiana,  part  V,  p.  108 :  New  York,  1853. 

(104.)  See  note  12,  p  9. 

(105.)  Lafitau,  Moeurs  des  Sauvages  Ameriquains,  vol.  I,  p.  530 :  Paris,  1724. 

(106.)  "Caeiquess  of  Cofachiqui  had  two  store-houses  for  the  relief  of  the  needy:"  Herrera,  vol.  V, 
p.  316:  London,  1740.  Timberlake,  who  visited  the  Cherokees,  A.  D.  1761,  and  accompanied  a  delega 
tion  of  them  to  England,  describes  their  method  of  relieving  the  poor,  which  resembles,  in  some  respects, 
the  "begging  dance"  of  the  Indians  of  the  Plains:  Memoirs,  p.  68:  London,  1765. 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  29 

public  expenditures. (f°7)  In  their  method,  too,  of  preventing,  or,  rather, 
punishing  laziness,  which  they  did  by  nne,('°8)  they  showed  an  advance  in 
social  science  that  is  worthy  of  all  commendation.  Among  them  corn  was 
the  staple  article  of  food,(109)  and  was  cultivated  in  great  quantities,  their 
fields  not  unfrequently  being  measured  by  miles  instead  of  by  acres.(u°) 
The  Avork  was  done  in  common,  though  the  fields  were  divided  by  proper 
marks,  and  the  harvest  was  gathered  by  each  family  separately^111)  The 
men  are  said  to  have  aided  in  the  field  work.  Indeed,  so  general  was 
this  custom,  that  I  do  not  know  of  a  single  prominent  tribe  living  east 
of  the  Mississippi  and  within  the  limits  named,  in  which  this  cannot  be 
shown  to  have  been  the  case.(112)  The  Choctaws,  as  we  have  seen,  were 
a  nation  of  farmers,  and  helped  their  wives  in  the  labors  of  the  field,  and 
in  many  other  kinds  of  work;("3)  the  Muscogees  rarely  went  to  war  until 
they  had  helped  the  women  to  plant  a  sufficient  plenty  of  pro  visions,  (IM) 
and  Hawkins  tells  us  that  to  constitute  a  legal  marriage  among  them,  a 
man  must,  among  other  things,  "build  a  house,  make  his  crop,  and  gather 
it  in,  then  make  his  hunt,  and  bring  home  the  meat;"  and  that  when  all 
this  was  put  in  possession  of  the  wife,  the  ceremony  was  ended,  or,  as  the 

(107.)  "  Previous  to  their  carrying  off  their  crops  from  the  field,  there  is  a  large  crib  or  granary,  erected 
in  the  plantation,  which  is  called  the  King's  crib ;  and  to  this  each  family  carries  and  deposits  a  certain 
quantity,  according  to  his  ability  or  inclination,  or  none  at  all  if  lie  so  chooses;  this  in  appearance  seems 
a  tribute  or  revenue  to  the  mico,  but  in  fact  is  designed  for  another  purpose,  i.  e.,  that  of  a  public  treas 
ury,  supplied  by  a  few  and  voluntary  contributions,  and  to  which  every  citizen  has  the  right  of  free  and 
equal  access,  when  his  own  private  stores  are  consumed,  to  serve  as  a  surplus  .to  fly  to  for  succor,  to  assist 
neighboring  towns,  whose  crops  may  have  failed,  accommodate  strangers  or  travellers,  afford  provisions  or 
supplies  when  they  go  forth  on  hostile  expeditions,  and  for  all  other  exigencies  of  the  State:"  Bartram, 
Travels  through  Florida,  p.  512:  London,  1791.  The  Huron-Iroquois  also  had  a  public  treasury,  which 
contained  wampum,  Indian  corn,  slaves,  fresh  and  dried  meat,  and,  in  fact* anything  else  that  might 
serve  to  defray  the  public  expenses:  See  Lafitau,  vol.  I,  p.  508,  and  vol.  II,  p.  273. 

(108.)  "The  delinquent  is  assessed  more  or  less,  according  to  his  neglect,  by  proper  officers  appointed 
to  collect  those  assessments,  which  they  strictly  fulfill  without  the  least  interruption  or  exemption  of  any 
able  person:"  Adair,  History  of  American  Indians,  p.  430:  London,  1763.  Compare  Lawson,  Carolina, 
p.  179:  London,  1718. 

(109.)  "Chief  produce  and  main  dependance:"  Adair,  p.  407.  "Principal  subsistence:"  Du  Pratz, 
History  of  Louisiana,  vol.  II,  p.  239:  London,  1763.  "Common  food  of  the  Creeks  is  Indian  corn:" 
Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes,  vol.  V,  p.  264.  "They  sow  their  maize  twice  a  year: "  Laudonniere,  in  Hist. 
Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  p.  174. 

(110.)  Adair,  pp.  225,  353,  411:  London,  1763.  Bartram,  Travels  through  Florida,  pp.  54,  332,  350,  352, 
354:  Philadelphia,  1791.  Narrative  of  Joutel,  in  Margry,  vol.  Ill,  p.  462:  Paris. 

(111.)  Bartram,  p.  512.     Adair,  p.  430.     Romans,  East  and  West  Florida,  p.  87. 

(112.  Laudonniere,  1.  c.,  p.  174.  Bartram,  pp.  194,  226,  512.  Adair,  pp.  407-430.  Romans,  p.  85. 
Memoir  of  Tonti,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  vol.  I,  p.  63.  Le  Moyne,  plate  XXI:  Frankfort  ad  Moenum, 
1591.  . 

(113.)  Bernard  Romans,  East  and  West  Florida,  pp.  71,  83,  85:  London. 

(114.)  Adair,  History  of  American  Indians,  p.  255:  London, 


30  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

Indians  express  it,  "the  woman  was  bound,  and  not  till  tlien."(115)  Among 
the  Natchez  and  kindred  tribes,  the  men  not  only  cleared  the  fields  and 
worked  the  crops, (II6)  but  in  one  field,  that  in  which  was  raised  the  corn 
destined  for  use  in  the  feast  of  the  "Busk"  or  First  Fruits,  the  ground  was 
prepared  and  cultivated  by  the  warriors  alone,  and  the  women  were  not 
allowed  to  take  any  part  in  the  work  at  any  stage.  (II7)  Slavery  was  com 
mon  among  all  these  nations  from  the  earliest  times,  as  it  was  also  among 
tribes  belonging  to  the  Huron  and  Algonquin  families  of  the  North,  that 
being  the  usual  lot  of  the  captives,  especially  of  the  women  and  children. 
In  the  time  of  De  Soto  we  are  told  that  some  of  these  tribes  had  many 
"foreign  Indian  slaves,  taken  in  war,  whom  they  put  to  tilling  the  ground 
and  other  sorts  of  labor;  and  that  they  might  not  run  away,  they  used  to 
cut  their  heels,  or  some  sinews  in  their  legs,  so  that  they  were  all  lame."(118) 
At  a  later  time,  the  custom  of  enslaving  captives  still  existed, (II9)  though 
I  do  not  find  that  they  were  mutilated  in  order  to  prevent  their  escape.  It 
is  quite  probable,  however,  that  this  was  still  sometimes  done,  as  Lawson 
speaks  of  an  Indian  captive  who  had  been  thus  treated  by  the  Senecas, 
but  who  had,  nevertheless,  managed  to  escape  and  find  his  way  back  to 
North  Carolina  in  that  crippled  condition.  (I2°)  These  nations  excelled  in 
manufactures,  such  as  pipes,  pottery,  and  wicker-work, (I21)  and  seem  always 
to  have  had  more  or  less  traffic  among  themselves. (I22)  Indeed,  Herrera 
speaks  of  "merchants  that  traveled  up  the  country,"  and  the  experience 
of  Cabec.a  de  Vaca  among  the  Indians  of  Texas,  as  a  dealer  in  flint  and 
other  articles,  which  he  brought  from  the  interior  and  bartered  with  the 

(115.)  Sketch  of  the  Creek  Country,  in  collections  Georgia  Hist.  Soc.,  p.  42.  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes 
of  the  U.  S.,  vol.  V,  p.  267. 

(116.)  Du  Pratz,  Hist,  of  Louisiana,  vol.  II,  pp.  168-189:  London,  1763.  Among  the  Tonicas  on  west 
side  of  the  Mississippi,"  the  men  do  what  peasants  do  in  France ;  they  cultivate  and  dig  the  earth,  plant 
and  harvest  the  crops,  cut  the  wood  and  bring  it  to  the  cabin,"  &c. :  Father  Gravier  in  Shea's  Early  Voy 
ages,  p.  134:  Albany,  1861.  Compare  St.  Cosme  in  same,  p.  81. 

(117.)  Du  Pratz,  vol.  II,  p.  189. 

(118.)  Herrera,  History  of  America,  vol.  V,  p.  320:  London,  1740. 

(119.)  M.  Penicaut,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  new  series,  pp.  123,  124:  New  York,  1869.  Brinton, 
Floridian  Peninsula,  p.  141:  Philadelphia,  1859.  Bartram,  Travels  through  Florida,  pp.  186,  213,507. 
Narrative  of  La  Salle's  voyage  down  the  Mississippi  by  Father  Membn'i,  in  Discovery  and  Exploration  of 
the  Mississippi,  p.  171 :  New  York,  1852.  Du  Pratz,  Louisiana,  vol.  II,  p.  249.  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes, 
vol.  V,  p.  260.  Timberlake,  Memoirs  relating  to  the  Cherokees,  p.  90:  London,  1765.  Herrera,  vol.  VI, 
p.  260:  London, 1740, 

(120.)  Lawson,  Carolina,  p.  53:  London,  1718. 

(121.)  Adair,  p.  423:  London,  1775.     Du  Pratz,  Louisiana,  book  IV,  chap.  Ill,  sec.  5:  London,  1763. 

(122.)  Herrera,  vol.  V,  p.  310:  London,  1740.  Laudonniere  in  Hakluyt's  Voyages,  vol.  Ill,  p.  369:  Lon 
don,  1810,  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States,  vol.  V,  p.  692. 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY.  31 

Indians  of  the  coast,  would  seem  to  be  decisive  as  to  the  existence  among 
them  of  a  class  of  pedlers.(123) 

Of  the  tribes  that  lived  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  our  accounts 
are  not  so  full ;  but  from  what  we  do  know  of  them,  it  is  safe  to  say  that, 
in  their  manner  of  life,  they  did  not  differ  materially  from  their  neighbors 
on  the  other  side  of  the  great  river.  In  the  time  of  La  Salle,  A.  D.  1682, 
they  lived  in  fixed  villages  ("sedentaires"),  (I24)  as  they  had  done  some 
hundred  and  fifty  years  before,  when  De  Soto  swept  through  that  country 
like  a  tornado,  and  they  still  cultivated  corn  in  great  abundance.  (I2S) 
Peach,  plum,  and  apple  trees  were  found  among  the  tribes  living  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas  ;(126)  and  these  same  tribes  are  said  to  have 
had  great  quantities  of  domestic  fowls,  including  flocks  of  turkeys  ;(127)  in 
short,  to  have  been  "half-civilized."(128)  As  Joutel  tells  us  that  there  was 
but  little  difference  in  the  religion,  manners,  clothing,  and  houses  of  the 
nations  inhabiting  this  region,  (I29)  it  seems  fair  to  conclude  that  the  others 
were  not  behind  the  favored  few  in  all  that  contributed  to  the  physical 
comfort  and  well-being  of  a  people.  Their  men  cleared  the  ground,  and 
aided  in  the  work  of  the  fields  ;('3°)  and  among  the  Tensas,  they  had  so 
far  anticipated  modern  methods  that,  in  one  "clearing,"  called  by  them 
"the  field  of  the  spirit,"  they  are  said  to  have  worked  to  the  music  of  the 

(123.)  "  With  my  merchandise  and  trade  I  went  into  the  interior  as  far  as  I  pleased,  and  traveled  along 
the  coast  forty  or  fifty  leagues.  The  principal  wares  were  cones  and  other  pieces  of  sea  snail,  conches  used 
for  cutting,  and  fruit  like  a  bean,  of  the  highest  value  among  them,  which  they  use  as  a  medicine,  and 
employ  in  their  dances  and  festivities.  Among  other  matters  were  sea  beads.  Such  were  what  I  carried 
into  the  interior;  and  in  barter  I  got  and  brought  back  skins,  ochre,  with  which  they  rub  and  color  the 
face,  hard  canes  of  which  to  make  arrows,  sinews,  cement  and  flint  for  the  heads,  and  tassels  of  the  hair 
of  deer,  that  by  dyeing  they  make  red.  This  occupation  suited  me  well;  for  the  travel  allowed  me  liberty 
to  go  where  I  wished.  I  was  not  obliged  to  work,  and  was  not  treated  as  a  slave.  Wherever  I  went  I 
received  fair  treatment,  and  the  Indians  gave  me  to  eat  out  of  regard  to  my  commodities."  Relation  of 
Cabeca  de  Vaca,  translated  by  Buckingham  Smith,  pp.  85  et  seq.:  New  York,  1871. 

(124.)  Memoir  of  the  Sieur  de  Tonti,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  p.  64. 

(125.)  Narratives  of  Fathers  Marquette  and  Membre,  in  Discovery  and  Exploration  of  the  Mississippi, 
pp.  48,  169, 177.  Memoir  of  Tonti,  and  Joutel's  Journal,  both  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  I,  pp.  63,  65, 
151,  153,  163,  &c.  The  latter  author  in  Margry,  vol.  Ill,  p.  462,  Paris,  tells  us  that  the  Kappas  had  a  field 
a  league  in  length  by  one  and  a  half  in  width. 

(126.)  Tonti,  I  c.,  p.  61. 

(127.)  Narrative  of  Father  Membre,  1.  c.,  p.  169. 

(128.)  Ibid.,  p.  172.  "Nothing  barbarous  but  the  name."  Narrative  of  Father  Douay,  in  Discovery 
and  Exploration  of  the  Mississippi,  p.  203. 

(129.)  Joutel,  Journal,  I  c.,  pp.  151,  152.    Tonti,  I.  c.,  pp.  62,  63. 

(130.)  Tonti  and  Joutel,  I.  c.,  pp.  63-149.  Father  Gravier,  in  Shea's  Early  Voyages,  p.  134:  Albany, 
J861.  "Men  among  Tonicas  employed  solely  on  their  fields: "  St.  Cosme,  I.  c.,  p.  81. 


32  THE   MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

drum.(IJI)  The  labor  of  the  fields  was  done  in  common,  though  each  family 
had  its  own  particular  plot  of  ground.(132)  The  harvest  was  gathered  sep 
arately  by'  each  family,  and  was  stored  in  magazines,  or  in  large  baskets 
made  of  cane,  or  in  gourds  as  large  as  half  barrels.(133)  In  other  respects, 
too,  individual  rights  seem  to  have  been  respected. (I34)  Slavery  existed 
among  the  Tensas  and  other  tribes  who  are  said  to  have  had  the  same 
customs.(135)  They  had  more  or  less  traffic  with  other  tribes,  especially 
in  bows,  in  the  manufacture  of  which  the  Caddoes  are  said  to  have  ex- 
celled.('36). 

Ascending  the  Mississippi,  we  find  among  the  Algonquin  tribes  of  the 
Northwest  a  condition  of  affairs  very  similar  to  that  which  has  been 
described  as  existing  among  their  kindred  and  neighbors  to  the  eastward. 
At  the  date  of  the  arrival  of  the  French,  say  in  the  beginning  of  the  last 
quarter  of  the  17th  century,  the  Miamis,  Kickapoos,  Winnebagoes,  Outag- 
amis  or  Foxes,  and  other  tribes,  were  living  in  Wisconsin  and  the  northern 
part  of  Illinois,  (I37)  whilst  all  south  of  that,  extending  as  far  as  the  mouth 
of  the  Ohio,  was  held  by  the  Illinois  and  their  allies,  among  whom  were 
a  few  villages  of  Shawnees.  These  latter  came  later,  having  established 
themselves  here  upon  the  invitation  of  La  Salle,(138)  though  the  home  of 
their  tribe  is  said  to  have  been,  at  this  time,  some  thirty  days'  journey  to 
the  east-southeast,  in  what  is  now  known  as  the  State  of  Kentucky,  (I39) 
where  they  seem  to  have  taken  refuge  after  their  expulsion  from  the  region 
south  of  the  lakes  by  the  Iroquois.(I4°)  Among  all  these  nations  corn  was 

(131.)  Tonti,  1.  c.,  p.  62.  Adair,  I.  c.,  p.  407,  speaking  of  the  Creeks,  says  that  sometimes,  when  at  work  in 
the  fields,  "one  of  their  orators  cheers  them  with  jests  and  humorous  old  tales,  and  sings  several  of  their 
most  agreeable  wild  tunes,  beating  also  with  a  stick  in  his  right  hand  on  the  top  of  an  enrthern  pot  cov 
ered  with  a  wet  and  well  stretched  deer  skin."  Compare  also  Lawson,  Carolina,  p.  175:  London,  1718. 

(132.)  Joutel,  Journal,  I.  c.,  p.  149.     Charlevoix,  Nouvelle  France,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  21,  22. 

(133.)  Memoir  of  the  Sieur  de  Tonti,  1.  c.,  p.  61.     Narrative  of  Father  Marquette,  p.  48. 

(134.)  In  their  cottages  "they  have  nothing  in  common  besides  the  fire."    Joutel,  p.  148. 

(135.)  Narrative  of  Father  Membre',  pp.  171-182.  In  his  Memoir,  Tonti,  p.  61,  speaks  of  the"maitre 
d' hotel"  to  the  chief  of  the  Tensas.  See  also  Joutel,  Journal,  p.  160,  and  La  Hurpe  in  Hist.  Coll.  of 
Louisiana,  part  III,  p.  68. 

(136.)  Tonti,  p.  73. 

(137.)  Narrative  of  Father  Marquette,  pp.  13-22. 

(138.)  Memoir  of  Tonti,  p.  66.    Narrative  of  Father  Membre",  I  c.,  p.  163. 

(139.)  Life  of  Father  Marquette,  p.  56,  and  also  p.  41  of  his  Narrative,  both  in  Shea's  Discovery  and 
Exploration  of  the  Mississippi.  In  the  old  maps,  the  Cumberland  is  put  down  as  the  river  of  the  Chaou- 
anons. 

(140.)  Colden  (Five  Nations,  pp.  23  and  25:  London,  1767)  says  the  Shawnees,  or,  as  he  calls  them,  the 
Satanas,  formerly  lived  on  the  banks  of  the  lakes,  and  that  they  were  the  first  people  against  whom  the 
Five  Nations  turned  their  arms,  after  their  defeat  and  expulsion  from  the  region  near  Montreal  by  the 
Adirondacks.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  this  took  place  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century. 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  33 

cultivated  in  quantities,  and  was  preserved  in  caches.(14')  The  field  work 
seems  to  have  been  left  to  the  women  (I42)  and  slaves.  There  was  also  a 
class  of  boys  or  men  who  were  employed  only  in  women's  wrork,  and  who 
did  not  take  part  either  in  war  or  hunting.  It  is  possible  that  they  were 
simply  captives  or  slaves,  though  upon  this  point  the  evidence  is  conflict 
ing.^43)  It  is  certain,  however,  that  slavery  was  very  common  among 
them,  that  being  the  usual  fate  of  captives  "taken  from  distant  nations  in 
the  south  and  west,  where  the  Illinois  go  to  carry  off  slaves,  whom  they 
make  an  article  of  trade,  selling  them  at  a  high  price  to  other  nations  for 
goods. "(M4)  These  tribes  lived  in  villages,  some  of  which  were  very  large, 
and  they  also  had  forts  or  strongholds  for  defense  in  case  of  necessity. (I4S) 

(141.)  "The  soil  is. good,  producing  much  corn,"p.  14.  *  *  *  "They  live  *  *  *  on  Indian  corn  of 
which  they  always  gather  a  good  crop,  so  that  they  have  never  suffered  by  famine,"  p.  33  of  Narrative  of 
Marquettr.  "They  live  on  Indian  corn  and  other  fruits  of  the  earth,  which  they  cultivate  on  the  prairies 
like  other  Indians:"  Narrative  of  Father  Allouez,  p.  75.  "The  richness  of  their  country  gives  them 
fields  everywhere:"  Narrative  of  Father  Membre,  p.  151.  All  these  are  published  in  the  Discovery  and 
Exploration  of  the  Mississippi  by  John  Gilmary  Shea:  New  York,  1852.  "This  is  a  place  of  great  trade 
for  skins  and  Indian  corn  which  these  savages  sell  to  the  Coureurs  de  Bois:"  La  Hontan,  Voyages,  I,  p. 
105:  London,  1703.  See  also  Memoir  of  Tonti,  I.  c.,  p.  54. 

(142.)  Joutcl,  p.  187.  Kips,  Missions,  p.  38.  Father  Marest  in  note  to  p.  25  of  Shea's  Discovery  and 
Exploration  of  the  Mississippi.  There  is  room,  however,  for  doubt  on  this  point,  as  Gharlevoix  (Letters, 
p.  293:  London,  1763)  speaks  of  the  Illinois  as  cultivating  the  land  after  their  fashion  and  as  being  very 
laborious;  and  in  Hawkins'  Sketch  of  the  Creek  Country,  p.  34,  we  are  told  that  "the  Shawnees,"  some 
of  whom,  at  that  time,  lived  among  the  Creeks,  "were  very  industrious,  worked  with  the  women,  and 
made  plenty  of  corn." 

(143.)  Father  Membre,  p.  151.  Marquette,  p.  34,  says:  "Through  what  superstition  I  know  not,  some 
Illinois  as  well  as  some  Nadouessi,  while  yet  young,  assume  the  female  dress,  and  keep  it  all  their  life. 
There  is  some  mystery  about  it,  for  they  never  marry,  and  glory  in  debasing  themselves  to  do  all  that  is 
done  by  women :  yet  they  go  to  war,  though  allowed  to  use  only  a  club,  and  not  the  bow  and  arrow,  the 
peculiar  arm  of  the  men;  they  are  present  at  all  juggleries  and  solemn  dances  in  honor  of  the  calumet; 
they  are  permitted  to  sing,  but  not  to  dance;  they  attend  the  councils,  and  nothing  can  be  decided  with 
out  their  advice;  finally,  by  the  profession  of  an  extraordinary  life,  they  pass  for  manitous  (that  is,  for 
genii)  or  persons  of  consequence."  Compare  Lafitau,  vol.  I,  pp.  52  and  53,  and  Lawson's  Carolina,  p. 
208.  Father  Membre,  I.  c.,  Hennepin,  and  La  Hontan  tell  us  that  these  men  were  reserved  for  an  unnat 
ural  purpose,  which,  according  to  Charlevoix  (Letters,  p.  213)  and  Long  (Expedition  to  the  Eocky 
Mountains,  vol.  I,  page  129:  Philadelphia,  1823),  may  have  been  a  religious  rite  or  the  result  of  a  dream. 
We  are  told  that  the  custom  existed  among  the  Choctaws,  Delawares,  and  also  among  the  Indians  of 
Florida,  though  it  is  denied  by  Lawson  as  far.  as  the  tribes  of  the  Carolinas  are  concerned.  It  is  said  to 
prevail  as  a  religious  rite  among  some  of  the  Pueblo  Indians  of  New  Mexico;  and  Miss  Alice  C.  Fletcher 
i  i:'or  i:s  me  that  during  her  residence  among  the  tribes  of  the  Upper  Missouri  she  saw  one  instance  of  a  man 
so  clothed,  and  this  was  caused  by  a  dream. 

(144.)  Narrative  of  Father  Marquette,  p.  32.  Memoir  of  the  Sieur  de  Tonti,  I.  c.,  pp.  56-69-71.  "The 
Saukie  warriors  generally  employed  every  summer  in  making  incursions  into  the  territories  of  the  Illi 
nois  and  Pawnee  nations,  from  whence  they  return  with  a  great  number  of  slaves.  But  those  people 
frequently  retaliate:"  Carver,  Travels,  p.  47.  See  also  Ibid.,  pp.  344  and  345:  London,  1781,  and  Rela 
tion  de  la  Nouvelle  France  en  1 '  annee,  1670,  pp.  91  and  97 :  Quebec,  1858. 

(145.)  Relation  en  1 '  annee,  1670,  pp.  98,  99.  Carver,  Travels,  p.  36.  Father  I.Iarest,  in  note  on  p.  31  of 
Discovery  and  Exploration  of  the  Mississippi.  Narrative  of  Father  Allouez  in  same,  p.  74,  with  note. 
Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  281:  London,  1763.  Per  contra,  Father  Membre,  p.  152,  asserts  that  "Tonti 
taught  the  Illinois  how  to  defend  themselves  by  palisades,"  though  he  himself  makes  no  such  claim. 
The  statement  is  improbable, 
MEM. — VOL.  n. — 3 


34  THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

Passing  over  an  interval  of  sixty  or  seventy  years,  and  coming  down  to 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  we  find  the  Shawnees  and  ]\liamis 
again  established  in  Ohio  and  Indiana,  in  company  with  the  Wyanduts, 
Delawares,  Pottawatamies,  and  other  tribes.  Just  about  this  time,  too,  the 
white  settlers  began  to  push  their  way  across  the  Alleghany  Mountains 
into  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  and  this  brought  on  that  long  and  bloody 
struggle  between  the  two  races,  which  only  ended  with  the  expulsion  of 
the  Indians  from  all  that  territory,  and  their  establishment  on  reservations 
west  of  the  Mississippi.  Time  and  again  they  "dug  up  the  hatchet,"  in 
order  to  stay  the  tide  of  immigration,  and  though,  for  a  while,  they  spread 
terror  all  along  the  frontier,  yet,  in  the  end,  they  were  always  obliged  to 
yield  to  the  superior  force  and  military  skill  and  discipline  of  the  whites. 
After  every  such  outbreak  they  found  themselves  weaker  than  before.  In 
retaliation  for  the  outrages  which  they  undoubtedly  committed,  their  coun 
try  was  invaded,  (I46)  their  villages  burned,  their  crops  destroyed,  (I47)  and 
as  the  price  of  each  succeeding  peace,  they  were  obliged  to  yield  more  or 
less  of  the  territory  that  remained  to  them.  This  is  a  sad  chapter  in  our 
national  history,  and  yet,  perhaps,  more  than  any  other,  it  justifies  the 
statement  that  the  Indian  had  made  great  advance  in  the  scale  of  civ 
ilization.  Instead  of  being  the  wandering  barbarian  that  he  is  painted, 
without  fixed  home,  or  any  means  of  subsistence  save  that  furnished  by 
the  chase,  it  presents  him  to  us  in  the  light  of  a  successful  farmer — a 
worthy  rival,  in  this  respect,  to  his  white  neighbor — fighting  desperately 
a  losing  battle  in  defense  of  all  he  held  most  dear.  Upon  this  point  Gen'l 
Wayne  is  certainly  competent  authority.  Writing  from  Grand  Glaize, 
A.  D.  1794,  just  after  the  battle  of  the  Maumee,  and  before  the  work  of 
destruction  had  been  begun,  he  uses  the  following  emphatic  language:  "The 
margins  of  these  beautiful  rivers,  the  Miamis  of  the  Lake  and  the  Au 
Glaize,  appear  like  one  continued  village  for  a  number  of  miles,  both  above 

(1,46.)  "Bowman's  Expedition  to  Mad  River  in  1779,  Clark's  in  1780  and  '82,  Logan's  in  1786  to  the 
head  waters  of  the  Big  Miami,  and  Todd's  in  1788  into  the  Scioto  valley,  were  chiefly  directed  against 
the  Shawanees:"  Drake,  Life  of  Tecumseh,  p.  27.  Besides  these,  there  were  other  and  more  formidable 
invasions,  some  of  which,  like  that  of  St.  Clair,  A.  D.  1791,  resulted  disastrously  to  the  whites;  whilst 
those  of  Wayne,  1794,  and  Harrison,  1811,  were  among  the  most  successful,  inasmuch  .as  in  them,  not 
only  were  the  corn-fields  and  villages  of  the  Indians  destroyed,  but  their  power  was  hopelessly  shattered 
by  defeat. 

(147.)  "In  1780,  two  hundred  acres  of  corn  were  destroyed  at  Piqua:  Life  of  Tecumseh,  p.  29.  In 
1790,  several  villages  and  20,000  bushels  of  corn  destroyed  at  the  Miami  villages  on  the  head  waters  of 
the  Maumee:"  Our  Indian  Wards  by  Geo.  W.  Manypenny:  Cincinnati,  1880.  In  1791,  "four  to  five 
hundred  acres  of  corn,  chiefly  in  the  milk,"  destroyed  on  the  Wabash:  Butler,  Kentucky,  p.  198: 
Louisville,  1834. 


THE    MOUNDS   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  35 

and  below  this  place;  nor  have  I  ever  before  beheld  such  immense  fields 
of  corn  in  any  part  of  America  from  Canada  to  Florida."('48) 

This  brings  us  around  to  the  point  from  which  we  started,  and,  geograph 
ically  speaking,  completes  the  circuit.  In  the  course  of  the  investigation, 
it  will  be  observed  that  I  have  taken  nothing  for  granted,  but  have  endeav 
ored  to  substantiate  every  assertion  by  a  reference  to  undoubted  sources, 
retaining,  as  far  as  possible,  the  very  language  of  the  authors.  These  cita 
tions  might  have  been  multiplied  indefinitely,  but  it  is  believed  that  enough 
have  been  given  to  show: 

1st.  That  the  red  Indians  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  lived  in  fixed  vil 
lages,  which  they  were  in  the  habit  of  fortifying  by  palisades. 

2d.  That  they  raised  corn  in  large  quantities,  and  stored  it  in  caches  and 
granaries  for  winter  use. 

3d.  That  whilst,  as  a  fact,  the  women,  children,  old  men,  and  slaves 
always  cultivated  the  fields,  yet  the  warriors  cleared  the  ground,  and,  when 
not  engaged  in  war  or  hunting,  aided  in  working  and  harvesting  the  crop, 
though  the  amount  of  such  assistance  varied,  being  greater  among  the 
tribes  south  of  the  Ohio,  and  less  among  the  Iroquois  or  Six  Nations. 

A  further  examination  of  these  same  authorities  will  show  that  slavery 
was  more  or  less  common  among  all  the  tribes  east  of  the  Mississippi ;  that 
the  rights  of  property  were  duly  recognized  and  respected,  and  that  there 
existed  among  them  a  system  of  inter-tribal  traffic,  in  which,  among  other 
things,  corn  and  slaves  were  bartered  for  skins  and  such  other  articles  as 
were  needed. 

SECTION  II. 
THE  INDIAN  AS  A  WORSHIPER  OF  THE  SUN. 

The  question  of  subsistence  being  thus  disposed  of,  let  us  now  examine 
into  the  form  of  government  and  the  religious  belief  of  the  modern  Indians, 
in  order  to  see  whether,  in  these  particulars,  there  were  any  such  differences 
between  the  state  of  affairs  that  can  be  shown  to  have  prevailed  among 
them,  and  that  which  is  assumed  to  have  existed  among  the  mound-build 
ers,  as  would  warrant  the  inference  that  they  could  not  have  erected  these 
works.  On  the  part  of  those  who  hold  that  there  were  such  fundamental 
differences,  it  is  contended  that  there  are  certain  types  of  earth-works  that 

(148.)  Quoted  in  Our  Indian  Wards,  p.  84:  Cincinnati,  1880. 


36  THE    MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

were  evidently  designed  for  a  religious  purpose.  They  are  variously  termed 
" temple"  mounds  and  "sacred  enclosures, "(I49)  are  found  sometimes  singly 
and  sometimes  united  in  a  more  or  less  complicated  system,  and  are  sup 
posed  to  indicate  that  the  people  who  built  them  were  devoted  to  the  wor 
ship  of  the  sun.(IS°)  It  is,  also,  asserted  that  the  erection  of  these  works 
involved  a  species  and  an  amount  of  labor  to  which  the  Indian  would  not 
have  submitted,  (ISI)  and  that  hence  he  did  not  build  then 

This  is  believed  to  be  a  fair  statement  of  the  argument,  which,  upon 
examination,  will  be  found  to  be  fatally  defective  in  so  far  as  it  assumes 
the  very  point  in  dispute.  To  assert  that  the  Indian  would  not  have  sub 
mitted  to  the  labor  requisite  for  the  construction  of  these  mounds,  is  vir 
tually  to  beg  the  whole  question.  So  far  is  this  from  being  true,  that  there 
is,  probably,  no  fact  in  American  archaeology  better  authenticated  than 
that  the  red  Indian  has,  within  the  historic  epoch,  voluntarily  built  both 
mounds  and  earth-works.  This,  of  itself,  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  state 
ment  as  to  what  he  would  or  would  not  have  submitted  to  in  the  way  of 
work,  and,  at  the  same  time,  it  effectually  disposes  of  the  theory  that  only 
despotic  governments  could  have  controlled  the  amount  of  labor  necessary 
to  the  erection  of  these  works,  since  the  form  of  government  existing  every 
where  throughout  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  at  the  date  of  the  arrival 
of  the  whites,  except,  perhaps,  among  the  Natchez  Indians,(152)  was  as  far 
removed  as  possible  from  any  thing  that  savored  of  despotism.  Of  course  it 
is  not  asserted  that  these  works  were  as  large  or  complicated  as  the  famous 
system  on  the  Scioto ;  nor  is  it  essential  to  my  argument  that  they  should 
have  been  intended  for  the  same  purpose ;  but  that  the  two  were  identical 

(149.)  Squier,  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  chapters  III  and  VII :  Washington, 
1848. 

(150.)  Foster,  Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United  States,  p.  182:  Chicago,  1873.  Short,  North  Americans 
of  Antiquity,  p.  100:  New  York,  1880.  Conant,  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races,  pp.  38  and  60:  St.  Louis, 
1879.  McLean,  The  Mound-builders,  p.  126:  Cincinnati,  1879.  Squier,  1.  c.,  p.  49.  Schoolcraft,  Indian 
Tribes  of  the  United  States,  vol.  V,  pp.  29  and  61.  C.  C.  Jones,  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians,  p. 
22 :  New  York,  1873. 

(151.)  Foster,  Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United  States,  p.  349:  Chicago,  1873. 

(152.)  In  the  early  accounts,  the  Bashaba  of  New  England,  the  Werowance  of  Virginia,  the  Para- 
conssi  of  Florida,  not  less  than  the  Great  Sun  of  the  Natchez,  are  all  represented  as  absolute  rulers 
though,  to  any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  read  between  the  lines,  it  is  evident  that  these  were 
simply  other  names  for  the  office  of  chief  or  sachem,  and  that  the  authority  of  these  rulers  did  not 
extend  any  farther  than  their  power  to  persuade.  Even  Du  Pratz  (whose  account  of  the  civil  polity  of 
the  Natchez  is  most  highly  colored)  virtually  admits,  vol.  II,  book  IV,  section  7,  that  the  war-making 
power  in  that  nation  was  vested  in  a  council  of  old  men,  and  that  when  war  was  once  declared,  the  war 
chief  and  not  the  Great  Sun  led  the  party,  which  was  composed  entirely  of  volunteers.  Under  different 
names  we  have  here  the  Micco  and  Tus-tun-nug-ul-gee  of  the  Creeks  and  the  sachem  and  war  chief  ol 
the  Iroquois,  with  no.  more  despotism  or- monarchy  in  one  case  than  in  either  of  the  others. 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  37 

in  kind  is  believed  to  be  beyond  dispute,  as  is  also  the  additional  fact  that 
among  those  known  to  have  been  erected  by  the  modern  Indians  there  are 
those  that  are  on  such  a  scale  of  magnitude  as  to  prove,  beyond  doubt, 
that  when  the  motive  was  sufficient  the  Indian  did  not  hesitate  to  perform, 
voluntarily  and  for  an  indefinite  length  of  time,  the  same  sort  of  manual 
labor  as  that  which  was  necessary  for  the  construction  of  the  more  compli 
cated  series  of  works.  Upon  this  point  the  evidence  is  very  clear;  and  as 
there  was,  practically,  no  limit  to  the  time  within  which  these  works  must 
have  been  finished,  it  follows  that  their  erection  by  a  people  living  under 
the  same  conditions  as  the  Indians  must  simply  have  resolved  itself  into  a 
question  of  the  power  and  permanence  of  the  motive  that  impelled  them  to 
the  undertaking.  Clearly,  if  a  regard  for  the  dead,  or  the  necessity  for  self- 
protection,  could  lead  the  people  of  a  single  village  to  erect,  in  one  case  a 
burial  mound  and  in  the  other  a  breastwork  or  fort,  there  can  be  no  reason 
why  a  motive  that  affected  a  whole  tribe,  and  continued  to  influence  suc 
cessive  generations,  might  not  have  led  to  works  as  much  greater  than  these 
as  the  one  motive  is  more  general  and  permanent  than  the  other.  Cologne 
cathedral  is,  to  some  extent,  a  case  in  point.  That  building  was  begun 
some  five  hundred  years  ago,  at  a  time  when  the  religious  feeling  of  the 
people  of  that  country  was  wont  to  manifest  itself  in  such  outward  marks 
of  devotion,  and  though  the  work  has  dragged  as  the  ages  rolled  on  and 
opinions  changed,  yet  the  very  same  motive  or  motives  that  led  to  its  com 
mencement,  acting  upon  succeeding  generations,  have  resulted  at  last  in 
the  completion  of  that  superb  structure.  This  being  admitted,  and  I  do 
not  see  how  it  can  well  be  denied,  there  only  remains  for  me  to  prove  the 
existence  of  some  adequate  motive  among  the  Indians  in  order  to  justify 
the  conclusion  that  they  could  have  built  these  works,  even  those  of  the 
largest  size  and  most  complicated  pattern. 

Under  ordinary  circumstances  this  is  a  task  that  I  should  hardly  venture 
to  undertake.  To  attempt  to  point  out  the  motive  that  led  the  people  of 
a  village  or  a  tribe  to  execute  a  certain  piece  of  work,  requiring  the  united 
labor  of  a  large  number  of  persons  for  an  indefinite  time,  especially  when 
the  purpose  or  end  for  which  that  work  was  intended  is,  itself,  a  matter  of 
grave  doubt,  seems  like  a  hopeless  undertaking;  and  yet,  with  all  due  def 
erence  be  it  spoken,  this  is  precisely  what  the  advocates  of  the  mound- 
builder  theory  have  done,  and  in  so  doing  they  have  marked  out  the  course 
that  this  investigation  must  follow. 


38  THE    MOUNTS   OF    TrfE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

Reasoning  from  analogy — an  uncertain  guide,  at  best,  in  matters  scien 
tific — they  not  only  tell  us  that  a  certain  class  of  these  works  were  designed 
for  a  religious  purpose,  but  they  assert  that  they  were  built  by  a  people 
who  worshiped  the  sun;  and  they  even  go  so  far  as  to  use  this  as  an  argu 
ment  why  they  could  not  have  been  erected  by  the  red  Indian.  That  some 
of  these  works  were,  in  some  way,  connected  with  this  cult  is  extremely 
probable;  at  all  events,  in  view  of  the  plausible  explanation  it  gives  of 
their  origin,  the  statement  is  admitted  to  be  true ;  but  to  assume  that  this 
furnishes  a  sound  basis  for  the  next  step  in  the  argument,  and  authorizes 
the  inference  that  the  red  Indian  could  not  have  built  them,  is  without 
warrant,  either  in  fact  or  logic.  Indeed,  so  far  is  it  from  being  an  argu 
ment  in  favor  of  this  theory,  that  it  is  believed  to  tell,  with  disastrous 
effect,  against  it,  since  it  can  be  shown,  on  undoubted  authority,  that  every 
where  in  the  valley  east  of  the  Mississippi  the  Indian  was  a  Sun  wor 
shiper,^53)  and  thus,  of  course,  he  and  the  mound-builder  must  have  had 
the  same  religious  cult,  even  according  to  the  admissions  of  those  who  hold 
that  the  two  belonged  to  different  races  and  represented  different  phases 
of  civilization.  This  being  the  case,  and  it  being  further  admitted  that  it 
was  this  cult  that  led  the  mound-builders  to  erect  works  like  the  so-called 
sacred  inclosures  of  Southern  Ohio,  it  must  follow  that  there  can  be  no 
reason  why  the  same  cult  should  not  have  produced,  among  the  Indians, 
precisely  similar  results.  To  the  argument  when  stated  in  this  fashion, 
the  only  answer  logically  possible  is  a  denial  that  the  Indians  were  Sun 
worshipers,  all  others  being  barred  by  the  terms  of  the  statement;  and 
as  this  is  the  course  that  the  discussion  must  inevitably  take,  it  behooves 
me  to  strengthen  this  point  as  much  as  possible.  To  this  end,  an  appeal 
to  the  early  records  again  becomes  necessary,  and  though  it  seems  like  a 
waste  of  time  thus  to  "thresh  old  straw,"  yet  the  fact  that  recent  writers 
on  this  subject  have  either  entirely  ignored  the  existence  of  Sun  worship 
among  the  modern  Indians,  or  else  have  limited  it  to  a  few  tribes, (IS4)  is 

(153.)  "The  tribes  of  the  New  World  chose  the  sun  as  the  object  of  their  adoration:  "  Brinton,  Notes 
on  the  Floridian  Peninsula,  p.  126:  Philadelphia,  1859.  "With  almost  all  the  aborigines  there  is 
proof  *  *  *  of  the  former  worship  of  the  sun:"  Bradford,  American  Antiquities,  p.  181:  New  York, 
1841.  "The  United  States  Indians  regarded  the  sun  as  the  symbol  of  light,  life,  power,  and  intelligence, 
and  deemed  it  the  impersonation  of  the  Great  Spirit.  They  sang  hymns  to  the  sun  and  made  genuflec 
tions  to  it;"  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes,  vol.  V,  p.  407,  and  vol.  Ill,  pp.  60  and  64.  "The  religions  or 
superstitions  of  the  American  Nations  *  *  *  are  only  modifications  of  that  primitive  system,  which 
has  been  denominated  Sun  or  Fire  worship: "  Squier,  Serpent  Symbol  in  America,  p.  Ill :  New  York, 
1851.  See  also  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  vol.  II,  pp.  287  et  seq.:  Boston  reprint,  1874.  Nuttall,  Travels  in 
Arkansas,  p.  277:  Philadelphia,  1821.  (154.)  Footprints  of  Vanished  Races,  p.  61:  St.  Louis,  1879. 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY.  39 

proof  positive  of  the  necessity  for  repeating  the  evidence  which  has  led 
me  to  a  contrary  conclusion.  In  doing  this,  however,  the  order  followed 
in  investigating  the  question  of  subsistence  will  be  reversed.  Instead  of 
beginning  with  the  Huron  and  Algonquin  families,  as  was  done  in  that 
case,  the  tribes  south  of  the  Ohio,  called  by  Schoolcraft  the  Appalachians 
(though  they  do  not  all  belong  to  the  same  stock  or  family),  will  be  first 
considered.  This  change  is  deemed  advisable  for  the  reason  that  the  relig 
ious  rites  and  observances  of  these  tribes  are  better  known  than  are  those 
of  any  other  nation  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  because,  further,  it  is 
only  by  the  light  of  this  knowledge  that  it  is  possible  to  interpret  customs 
once  prevalent  elsewhere,  but  which  have  either  wholly  died  out  or  lost 
much  of  their  significance.  As  an  instance  of  this,  take  the  institution  for 
keeping  up  a  perpetual  fire,(155)  which  seems,  at  one  time,  to  have  been  very 
general  among  the  tribes  north  of  the  Ohio,  but  which  disappeared  soon 
after  the  arrival  of  the  whites,  though  we  are  told  that  its  rites  and  duties 
were  still  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  the  Indians.  Of  itself,  the  fact  that 
this  institution  had  once  prevailed  extensively  among  tribes  both  of  the 
Huron  and  Algonquin  families  might  not  be  considered  as  settling  defin 
itely  their  form  of  religion ;  but  if  it  be  taken  in  connection  with  the  very 
prominent  part  this  rite  held  in  the  religious  observances  of  the  sun- wor 
shiping  tribes  of  the  Gulf  States,  it  will  be  seen  that  it  forms  an  important 
link  in  the  chain  of  evidence  that  points  to  the  existence  of  one  and  the 
same  form  of  worship  among  these  different  nations.  Other  instances  of  a 
similar  character  will  doubtlessly  occur  in  the  course  of  this  investigation; 
and  my  object  in  calling  attention,  at  this  time,  to  the  sudden  disappear 
ance,  over  such  a  wide  area,  of  what  must  have  been  an  important  relig 
ious  rite,  is  not  so  much  to  mark  the  identity  that  once  existed  in  the  ritual 
of  these  widely  separated  nations,  as  it  is  to  indicate  the  method  that  it  is 
proposed  to  adopt  in  the  treatment  of  this  and  similar  cases.  This  mode 
of  reasoning  is  believed  to  be  perfectly  fair  and  legitimate,  though  of  course 

(155.)  General  Lewis  Cass  in  Notes  to  Sanillac,  a  poem  by  Henry  Whitney:  Boston,  1831.  Brinton, 
Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  150:  New  York,  1876.  Schoolcraft,  Address  before  N.  Y.  Historical  Society, 
1846,  quoted  in  Serpent  Symbol  in  America,  p.  129.  "  The  general  council  of  the  Five  Nations  was  held 
at  Onondaga,  where  there  has,  from  the  beginning,  been  kept  a  fire  continually  burning,  made  of  two 
great  logs,  whose  flames  were  never  extinguished:"  Golden,  Five  Nations,  vol.  I,  p.  167:  London,  1747. 
This  language  may  be  metaphorical,  and  the  "fire"  spoken  of  may  mean  a  "Council  fire,"  and  I  am  per 
fectly  willing  to  admit  that  it  does,  though  Lafitau,  vol.  I,  pp.  340  and  341,  speaking  of  the  Iroquois,  tells 
us  that  "Les  Sauvages  ont  encore  plus  perdu  de  leurs  contumes  depuis  ce  temps-la;  ils  le  reconnoissent 
eux-memes,  et  y  ont  regret;  car  dans  les  malheurs  qui  leur  arrivent,  ils  discut  qu  '  ils  ne  doivent  pas  s'en 
plaindre,  et  que  c'est  une  punition  pour  avoir  abandonn6  1'  usage  de  leurs  retraites,  et  de  leurs  jeunes." 


40  THE    MOUNDS    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

its  efficacy  will  depend  upon  the  establishment  of  the  truth  of  the  prop 
osition  that  the  southern  Indians  Avere  Sun  worshipers.  Fortunately 
this  is  a  matter  about  which  there  cannot  be  much  doubt.  La  Vega,(156) 
Laudonniere,('57)  and  others,(158)  some  of  whom  wrote  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  bear  witness  to  the  fact  in  the  most  unmistakable 
language,  and  their  statements  are  confirmed  by  all  the  later  writers.('59) 
To  enumerate  these  latter  would  be  simply  to  call  the  roll  of  all  who 
have  written  upon  the  subject,  and  however  interesting  this  might  be 
to  the  special  student  in  a  bibliographical  point  of  view,  it  would  soon 
become  monotonous  and  " caviare  to  the  general."  For  this  reason,  I  shall 
confine  myself  to  a  rapid  survey  of  some  of  the  religious  customs  that 
prevailed  among  these  tribes,  and  will  only  make  such  use  of  authorities 
as  may  be  necessary  to  establish  the  truth  of  the  propositions  advanced. 

Speaking  in  a  general  way,  then,  it  may  be  said  of  these  nations  that 
among  some  of  them  "the  sun  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  great  deities; 
by  others  it  was  looked  upon  as  the  symbol  or  representative  of  the  chief 
deity,  and  yet  again  by  others  it  was  considered  as  the  supreme  deity 
himself."(l6°)  As  part  and  parcel  of  this  worship,  there  were  certain  rites 
and  ceremonies,  among  which  that  of  keeping  up  a  perpetual  fire  was 
one  of  the  most  striking.  This  fire  was  kept  burning  in  honor  of  the 

(156.)  "Les  peuples  de  la  Floride  tiennent  le  Soleil  et  la  Lune  pour  des  Divinites  : "  Histoire  de  la 
conquete  de  la  Floride,  p.  11 :  Paris,  1709.  According  to  the  Gentleman  of  Elvas,  De  Soto,  in  order  to 
ingratiate  himself  with  the  tribes  through  whose  dominions  he  was  passing,  represented  himself  as  being 
a  child  of  the  Sun.  "Dry  up  the  river,"  answered  the  Cacique  of  Quigalta,  "and  he  would  believe  him:" 
Narrative  of  the  Expedition  of  Hernando  de  Soto  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  II,  p.  187. 

(157.)  "They  sing  praises  to  the  Sun,  ascribing  unto  him  the  honor  of  the  victory.  They  have  no 
knowledge  of  God,  nor  of  any  religion,  saving  that  which  they  see,  as  the  Sun  and  the  Moon :  "  History 
of  the  first  attempt  of  the  French  to  colonize  Florida,  A.  D.  1562,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  new  series, 
pp.  171-252  and  253:  New  York,  1869. 

(158.)  Le  Moyne,  plate  XXXV  and  explanation,  Franckforto  ad  Moenum,  1591.  See  also  plate  in 
preface  to  vol.  VI  of  Herrera's  History  of  America,  in  which  the  Indians  of  Florida  are  represented  as 
"sacrificing  their  first  born  to  the  Sun:"  London,  1740.  "Les  Apalachites  adoraient  le  soleil  de  meme 
que  la  plupart  des  plus  celebres  peuples  de  1' Amerique:"  Rochefort  Histoire  des  Antilles,  p.  412:  Rot 
terdam,  1665.  Confirmed  by  Herrera,  pp.  328-355  of  vol.  V,  and  p.  24  of  vol.  VI:  London,  1740.  "Le 
Soleil  est  eu  quelque  facon  1'  unique  Divinit4  des  Floridiens,  tous  leurs  Temples  lui  ont  consaerees : " 
Charlevoix,  Nouvelle  France,  vol.  I,  p.  41. 

(159.)  Consult  Jones,  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians,  chapters  I  and  XIX:  New  York,  1873. 
Brinton,  Floridian  Peninsula,  chapter  III,  section  3:  Philadelphia,  1859.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  vol. 
II,  p.  287  et  seq.:  Boston  reprint,  1874.  Squier,  Serpent  Symbol  in  America,  chap.  IV:  New  York,  1851. 
Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  p.  123:  Washington,  1848. 

(160.)  This  is  the  classification  made  by  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  vol.  II,  p.  287,  of  the  beliefs  of  "the 
ruder  tribes"  of  the  northern  continent.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  equally  applicable  to  the  tribes  living 
on  the  lower  Mississippi  and  along  the  Gulf  coast,  and  I  have  adopted  it,  even  though  those  nations  are 
sometimes  considered,  on  what  are  believed  to  be  insufficient  grounds,  as  occupying  a  somewhat  higher 
place  in  the  scale  of  civilization  than  their  neighbors  north  of  the  Ohio. 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY.  41 

sun,(l6')  and  was  regarded  as  being  too  sacred  to  be  used  for  ordinary  pur 
poses.  It  was  fed  with  sticks  or  billets  of  wood  without  the  bark,  placed 
so  as  to  radiate  from  a  common  center,  somewhat  like  the  spokes  of  a 
wheel,  the  fire  occupying  the  center  or  hub.  It  was  kept  in  buildings  or 
temples  erected  for  the  purpose,  in  which  were  also  preserved  the  bones 
of  the  dead  chieftains,  neatly  done  up  in  cane  baskets.  Priests  or  guard 
ians  were  appointed  to  watch  over  this  fire,  and  see  that  it  never  died  out, 
as  its  extinguishment  was  thought  to  forebode  dire  evil  to  the  tribe. (l62) 
In  case  such  a  thing  did  happen,  either  by  accident  or  through  careless 
ness,  the  fire  could  only  be  rekindled  by  brands  taken  from  that  kept  burn 
ing  in  the  temple  of  the  Maubiliens.(l63) 

First  among  the  Priests  or  guardians  of  the  temple  and  fire  among  th/3 
Natchez  was  the  chief  of  the  tribe,  or,  as  he  was  called,  the  Great  Sun.(l64) 
Every  morning  at  sunrise  he  appeared  at  the  door  of  his  cabin,  and  turning 
toward  the  east  "he  howled  three  times,"  bowing  down  to  the  earth.  Then 
a  calumet,  used  only  for  this  purpose,  was  brought  him,  and  he  smoked, 
blowing  the  smoke  of  the  tobacco  first  towards  the  sun  and  then  towards 
the  other  three  quarters  of  the  world. (l6s)  He  acknowledged  no  superior 
but  the  sun,  from  which  he  pretended  to  derive  his  origin. (l66) 

These  temples  did  not  differ  materially  from  each  other,  nor  from  the 
other  cabins,  especially  those  of  the  Indian  chiefs.  The  description  which 

(161.)  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  313:  London,  1763. 

(162.)  Charlevoix  Letter  No.  XXIX,  pp.  308  et  seq.:  London,  1763.  Du  Pratz,  History  of  Louisiana, 
vol.  II,  chapter  3,  sections  2  and  4:  London,  1763.  Memoir  of  Tonti  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  I, 
p.  61.  Father  Le  Petit  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  III,  note  to  p.  140  et  seq.  La  Vega,  Conquete  de 
la  Floride,  vol.  I,  p.  266  et  seq. :  Paris,  1709.  Gentleman  of  Elvas  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  II,  p. 
123.  Letter  of  Father  Gravier  in  same,  second  series,  pp.  79  et  seq.:  1875. 

(163.)  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  323:  London,  1763. 

(164.)  Du  Pratz,  History  of  Louisiana,  vol.  II,  p.  212:  London,  1763. 

(165.)  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  315.  Father  Le  Petit  in  Hist.  Coll.  Louisiana,  part  III,  note  to  p.  142. 
Father  Douay's  Narrative  of  La  Salle's  attempt  to  ascend  the  Mississippi  in  1687;  published  in  Shea's 
Discovery  and  Exploration  of  that  river,  p.  228.  It  was  in  this  expedition  that  La  Salle  was  murdered, 
and  the  good  father's  account  relates  to  the  tribes  that  were  then  living  in  what  are  now  the  States  of 
Texas,  Louisiana,  and  Arkansas.  He  says:  "The  Sun  is  their  divinity,  and  they  offer  it  in  sacrifice,  the 
best  of  their  chase  in  the  chief's  cabin.  They  pray  for  half  an  hour,  especially  at  sunrise;  they  send 
him  the  first  whiff  of  their  pipes,  and  then  send  one  to  each  of  the  four  cardinal  points."  As  late  as  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century,  Nuttall  tells  us  that,  according  to  the  testimony  of  a  Quapaw  chief,  the 
"Osages  smoked  to  God  or  the  Sun,  and  accompanied  it  by  a  short  apostrophe :"  Travels  into  the  Arkan 
sas  Territory,  p.  95:  Philadelphia,  1821. 

(166.)  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  315.  This  belief  was  not  confined  to  the  Natchez,  as  the  Hurons  and  also 
the  tribes  of  the  Floridian  Peninsula  asserted  the  same  thing  of  their  chiefs.  See  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p. 
314,  for  the  former,  and  Lafitau,  Moeurs  des  Sauvages  Ameriquains,  vol.  I,  pp.  181  and  456  for  the  latter. 
Bartram,  Travels  through  Florida,  p.  496,  says  that,  among  the  Creeks,  "  the  Micco  seems  the  representa 
tive  of  the  Great  Spirit." 


42  THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

the  Sieur  de  Tonti  has  left  us  of  the  one  among  the  Tensas,  visited  by 
him  during  the  course  of  his  trip  down  the  Mississippi  with  La  Salle,  A. 
D.  1682,  will,  with  but  few  changes,  apply  equally  well  to  all  of  them. 
After  premising  that  these  tribes  "have  a  form  of  worship,  and  adore  the 
sun,"(167)  he  goes  on  to  say  that  the  temple  is  very  like  the  cabin  of  the 
chief,  which  stands  opposite,  except  that  on  top  of  it  there  were  the  figures 
of  three  eagles  which  looked  towards  the  rising  sun.  It  was  about  forty 
feet  square,  and  the  walls,  ten  feet  high  and  one  thick,  were  made  of  earth 
and  straw  mixed.  The  roof  was  dome-shaped,  and  about  fifteen  feet  high. 
Around  this  temple  were  strong  mud  walls,  in  which  are  fixed  spikes,  and 
on  these  are  placed  the  heads  of  their  enemies,  whom  they  sacrificed  to 
the  sun.  Within  it  there  is  an  altar,  and  at  the  foot  of  this  altar  three 
logs  of  wood  are  placed  on  end,  and  a  fire  is  kept  up  day  and  night  by 
two  old  Priests,  who  are  the  directors  of  their  worship.  (l68) 

We  are  also  told  that,  at  one  time,  these  temples  were  quite  common 
throughout  all  the  vast  region  then  known  as  Florida,  a  majority  of  the 
tribes  and  even  many  of  the  villages  having  their  own,  and  keeping  up 
in  them  perpetual  fires. (l69)  Geographically  speaking,  they  are  found  all 
the  way  from  Arkansas  to  the  southern  extremity  of  the  peninsula  of  Flor 
ida;  and  in  point  of  time  they  cover  the  one  hundred  and  eighty  years 
embraced  between  the  expedition  of  De  Soto  and  the  visit  of  Charlevoix 
in  A.  D.  1721. (T7°)  About  this  time  they  seem  to  have  gone  somewhat  out 
of  fashion,  as  we  are  told  that  the  one  among  the  Natchez  was  the  only 
one  left ;  and  although  that  is  said  to  have  been  held  in  great  veneration 
"by  all  the  savages  which  inhabited  this  vast  continent,"  and  the  eternal 
fire  was  still  kept  up,  yet  it  is  evident  from  the  neglected  and  unguarded 

(167.)  Memoir  of  Tonti  in  Hist  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  I,  pp.  61  and  64. 

(168.)  Memoir  of  Tonti  in  Hist  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  I,  pp.  61  el  seq.  Narrative  of  La  Salle's  voy 
age  down  the  Mississippi  by  Father  Membre,  p.  171.  Speaking  of  the  Indians  of  the  lower  Mississippi, 
the  worthy  father  says:  "  We  remarked  a  particular  veneration  they  had  for  the  Sun,  which  they  recog 
nize  as  him  who  made  and  preserves  all."  Compare  this  description  of  the  temple  of  the  Tensas  with 
that  of  similar  buildings  among  other  tribes  as  given  in  Charlevoix,  Letters,  pp.  312  et  seq.,  and  in  La 
Nouvelle  France,  vol.  Ill,  p.  381;  Du  Pratz,  History  of  Louisiana,  vol.  II,  chap.  3,  sections  2  and  4;  La 
Vega,  premiere  partie,  pp.  266  et  seg.;  Gentleman  of  Elvas  in  Hist  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  I,  p.  123,  and 
Father  Le  Petit  in  the  same,  part  III,  note  to  pp.  141  et  seq.  This  latter  author  says  of  the  Natchez: 
"  The  Sun  is  the  principal  object  of  veneration  to  these  people ;  as  they  cannot  conceive  of  anything  which 
can  be  above  this  heavenly  body,  nothing  else  appears  to  them  more  worthy  of  their  homage." 

(169.)  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  323.  Du  Pratz,  vol.  II,  pp.  210  and  11.  Father  Le  Petit,  1.  c.,  note  on  p. 
144. 

(170.)  La  Vega,  Conquete  de  la  Floride,  premiere  partie,  pp.  264  et  seq.  Ibid.,  seconde  partie,  p.  89: 
Paris,  1709.  Gentleman  of  Elvas,  1.  c.,  p.  123.  Charlevoix  Letter,  No.  XXIX:  London,  1763.  Du 
Pratz,  vol.  II,  p.  211 :  London,  1763. 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  43 

condition  in  which  Charlevoix  found  it(171)  that  it  had  lost  much  of  its 
sacred  and  distinctive  character.  Indeed,  he  tacitly  admits  as  much,  and 
probably  assigns  the  true  cause  when  he  ascribes  it  to  the  fear  lest  the 
French  should  violate  these  last  resting  places  of  the  dead,(I?2)  as  they  had 
done  with  the  temple  of  the  Oumas  (I73)  a  few  years  before. 

Some  twenty-five  years  later,  in  the  time  of  Adair,  who  lived  and  traded 
among  the  Chickasaws,  Creeks,  and  Choctaws  for  many  years  subsequent 
to  1735,  the  change  was  even  more  perceptible.  It  is  true  that  the  tribes 
constituting  the  Creek  or  Muscogee  confederacy  kept  up  many  of  the  pecu 
liar  usages  of  the  Natchez,  and  continued  to  venerate  the  sun,  as  they  cer 
tainly  did  down  to  a  comparatively  recent  period  ;(174)  and  in  describing 
their  religious  ceremonies,  Adair  still  speaks  of  a  "sacred  fire,"  "holy 
places,"  "synhedria,"  &c.  ;(175)  but  it  is  evident  that  in  so  doing,  he  has 
been  betrayed  by  his  wild  notions  as  to  the  identity  of  the  American  Indians 
with  the  lost  tribes  of  Israel,  into  the  adoption  of  a  terminology  that  is  not 
warranted  by  the  facts.  Temples  such  as  the  one  described  among  the 
Tensas,  and  which,  as  we  have  seen,  were  once  common  among  all  the 
Floridian  tribes,  no  longer  existed,  and  in  their  stead  we  find  the  state- 
house,  rotunda,  hot-house,  or  simple  council  chamber,  such  as  it  was  known 
to  the  Creeks  and  Cherokees.  In  connection  with  the  disappearance  of  the 
temples  proper  among  these  nations,  there  seems  to  have  been  a  corres 
ponding  decrease  in  the  number  and  purity  of  their  religious  rites  and 
ceremonies.  Du  Pratz('7<5)  mentions  the  fact,  ascribing  it  to  the  decrease 
in  population,  whilst  Adair,  (I77)  mourning  over  what  he  is  pleased  to  con 
sider  the  religious  degeneracy  of  the  times,  complains  that  "their  primitive 
rites  are  so  corrupted  within  the  space  of  the  last  thirty  years  that,  at  the 
same  rate  of  declension,  there  will  not  be  long  a  possibility  of  tracing  their 
origin  but  by  their  dialects  and  war  customs."  Especially  is  this  said  to 
be  true  of  the  Cherokees,  whom  he  stigmatizes  as  a  nest  of  apostate 
hornets.(I?8) 

(171.)  Charlevoix,  Letters,  pp.  313  and  323. 

(172.)  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  313:  London,  1763. 

(173.)  Lafitau,  Moeurs  des  Sauvages  Ameriquains,  vol.  I,  p.  168:  Paris,  1724. 

(174.)  Nuttall,  Travels  into  the  Arkansa  Territory,  p.  277:  Philadelphia,  1821. 

(175.)  Adair,  History  of  the  North  American  Indians,  pp.  30  and  98  et  seq.:  London,  1775. 

(176.)  History  of  Louisiania,  vol.  II,  p.  210:  London,  1763. 

(177.)  History  of  North  American  Indians,  pp.  81  and  98. 

(178.)  North  American  Indians,  p.  81. 


44  THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

A  few  years  later,  say  during  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  the  change  is  complete.  A  temple  is  no  longer  even  spoken  of,  though 
the  Council  House,  which  seems  to  have  taken  its  place  as  the  scene  of 
their  religious  rites  and  festivities,  inherited  something  of  its  sacred  char 
acter.  It  was  stDl  placed  upon  an  artificial  mound,  (I79)  as  it  had  been 
among  the  Quapaws  of  Arkansas, (I8°)  the  Natchez  of  Louisiana,^81)  and 
other  southern  tribes ;  and  here  the  old  men  of  the  village  were  accustomed 
to  meet  every  evening  to  talk  over  public  affairs;  and  here  also  took  place 
many  of  their  feasts  and  dances  when  the  weather  precluded  the  use  of 
the  open  square  in  front.(l82)  Women  were  no  longer  shut  out  from  its 
sacred  precincts,  but  were  permitted,  under  certain  conditions,  to  take  a 
subordinate  part  in  the  ceremonies,  except,  perhaps,  among  the  Creeks, 
among  whom,  according  to  Bartram,  it  was  still  deemed  an  offense  worthy 
of  death  for  a  woman  to  enter  this  Rotunda. (l83)  He  also  tells  us  that  it 
was  within  this  building  that  the  new  fire  was  kindled  on  the  occasion  of 
the  feast  of  first  fruits,  and  it  was  here  that,  under  guard  of  the  Priests, 
"they  seem  to  keep  up  the  eternal  fire."(l84)  This,  however,  had  lost  its 
original  form,  and  was  now  spiral  in  shape.(l8?)  Its  sacred  character,  too,, 
was  gone,  for  the  houseless  pauper  could  now  bask  in  its  warmth  undis 
turbed  by  priest  or  prophet;  and  when  the  evening  dance  or  the  council 

(179.)  Bartram,  Travels  through  Florida,  p.  367  et  seq. :  Philadelphia,  1791.  See  also  MSS.  of  the  same 
author  quoted  by  Squier  in  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge,  vol.  II,  pp.  136  et  seq.,  and  Adair, 
North  American  Indians,  p.  421. 

(180.)  La  Vega,  Conquete  de  la  Floride,  seconde  partie,  p.  89:  Paris,  1709. 

(181.)  Du  Prate,  vol.  II,  p.  211:  London,  1763.  Father  Le  Petit,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  III, 
note  to  p.  140. 

(182.)  Hawkins,  Sketch  of  the  Creek  Country,  p.  72.  Adair,  p.  18.  Bartram,  Travels  through  Florida, 
pp.  369  and  516.  Schoolcraft,  vol.  V,  p.  265.  Timberlake,  Memoirs  relating  to  the  Cherokees,  p.  32. 

(183.)  Bartram,  MSS.  quoted  in  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge,  vol.  II,  p.  138:  Washington, 
1851. 

(184.)  Ibid.,  p.  138.  "  Muscogulges  pay  a  kind  of  homage  to  the  Sun,  Moon,  and  Planets : "  Bartram, 
MSS.  quoted  in  Serpent  Symbol,  p,  69:  New  York,  1851.  "Cherokees  adore  Sun  and  Moon:"  Payne, 
MSS.  quoted  in  same,  p.  68.  Indians  of  Southern  States  appear  to  have  been  "  originally  worshipers  of 
the  Sun.  The  Chahta,  when  he  has  greatly  misbehaved,  utters  these  ejaculations:  when  the  Sun  forsakes 
a  man  he  will  do  things  he  never  thought  to  do.  The  Sun  is  turned  against  me,  therefore  have  I  come  to 
this : "  Pitchlynn,  quoted  by  Buckingham  Smith  in  Notes  to  his  Translation  of  the  Relation  of  Cabeca  de 
Vaca,  p.  171:  New  York,  1871. 

(185.)  Bartram  MS3.,  L  c.,  p.  138.  Hawkins,  p.  71.  The  latter  author  says:  "  In  the  center  of  the  room, 
on  a  small  rise,  the  fire  is  made  of  dry  cane  or  old  pine  slabs,  split  fine,  and  laid  in  a  spiral  circle."  See 
also  Lawson,  Carolina,  p.  38:  London,  1718.  In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Abena- 
quis,  of  New  England,  were  in  the  habit  of  practicing  divination  by  the  manner  in  which  the  fire  would 
"run"  in  a  carefully  prepared  powder  made  from  cedar.  Lafitau,  vol.  I,  p.  387,  gives  an  account  of  it,  also 
the  argument  by  which  an  Indian  woman  justified  the  practice. 


THE    MOUNDS    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  45 

was  over,  he  might  find  a  night's  lodging  within  the  precincts  of  the  temple 
itself.086) 

Another  very  interesting  rite  was  that  of  annually  putting  out  all  the 
fires  of  the  tribe,  and  kindling  them  anew  from  sacred  fire  produced  by 
friction.  This  ceremony  took  place  at  the  Feast  of  the  Busk  or  offering 
of  first  fruits,  which  seems  to  have  been  very  general  throughout  this 
region.  (I8?)  Indeed,  Schoolcraft  tells  us  that  it  also  prevailed  among  the 
Huron  and  Algonquin  families  north  of  the  Ohio,  and  that  it  extended  to 
the  tribes  west  of  the  Mississippi. (l88)  He  also  adds,  that  in  every  case 
it  was  attended  with  many  ceremonies,  though  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  celebrated  anywhere  north  of  the  Ohio  with  the  same  solemnity  that 
it  was  among  the  nations  that  formerly  inhabited  the  Gulf  States, (l89)  or, 
at  all  events,  our  accounts  of  such  celebrations  are  not  so  full  and  explicit. 
Adair,  who  lived  among  these  people  for  many  years,  and  who,  aside  from 
his  notions  about  the  identity  of  the  Indians  with  the  Israelites,  is  usually 
trustworthy,  describes  this  festival  at  great  length,  as  does  Bartram,  Haw 
kins,  and  others.  (I9°)  From  their  accounts  I  have  made  up  the  following 
summary,  which  may  not  be  uninteresting:  when  the  time  for  holding  this 
festival  was  fixed,  the  people  of  the  village  put  their  town  in  order,  pre 
pared  new  clothes  for  themselves,  and  then,  having  partaken  of  the  "  black 
drink, "(I91)  they  entered  upon  a  rigorous  fast  of  two  days,  during  which 
they  abstained  from  the  gratification  of  every  sensual  appetite.  On  the 
morning  of  the  third  day  a  supply  of  old  food  was  brought  to  the  square, 
all  vestiges  of  which  were  removed  before  noon.  As  the  sun  began  to 
decline,  the  fires  were  extinguished  in  every  hut,  and  universal  silence 
reigned.  The  chief  priest  then  took  a  piece  of  dry  poplar,  willow,  or  white 
oak,  and  having  cut  a  hole  "so  as  not  to  reach  through  it,  he  sharpened 

(186.)  Hawkins,  Sketch  of  the  Creek  Country,  p.  72.  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States, 
vol.  V,  p.  265. 

(187.) .  Joutel,  Journal  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  parti,  p.  151.  Father  Le  Petit  in  same,  part  III,  note 
on  p.  144.  Nuttall,  Travels  in  the  Arkansa  Territory,  p.  96.  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  150 : 
New  York,  1876.  Du  Prat?,  Louisiana,  vol.  II,  p.  189.  Timberlake,  Memoirs  relating  to  the  Cherokees, 
p.  65:  London,  1765, 

(188.)  Notes  on  the  Iroquois,  p.  85  et  seq.:  New  York,  1846.  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States,  vol.  Ill 
p.  227.  Catlin,  North  American  Indians,  vol.  I,  p.  189:  London,  1848. 

(189.)  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States,  vol.  V,  p.  104. 

(190.)  Adair,  History  of  North  American  Indians,  Argument  VIII.  Bartram,  Travels  Through  Flor 
ida,  pp.  509  and  510.  Hawkins,  Sketch  of  the  Creek  Country,  pp.  75,  78.  See  also  note  187. 

(191.)  Made  from  the  Ilex  Cassine  L,  called  Cassena  or  Youpon. 


46  THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

another  piece,  and  placing  that  within  the  hole,  he  drilled  it  briskly  for 
several  minutes,  till  it  began  to  smoke ;  or  by  rubbing  two  pieces  together 
for  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  by  friction,  he  collected  the  hidden  fire." 
It  was  then  brought  out  of  the  temple  in  an  earthern  dish  and  placed  upon 
an  altar  that  had  been  previously  prepared  in  the  square.  Its  appearance 
brought  joy  to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  as  it  was  supposed  to  atone  for  all 
past  crimes,  except  murder.  A  general  amnesty  was  proclaimed,  except 
for  this  one  crime,  and  all  malefactors  might  now  return  to  their  villages 
in  safety.  A  basket  of  new  fruits  was  then  brought,  and  the  fire-maker 
took  some  of  each  kind,  and  covering  them  with  bear's  grease,  he  offered 
them  up  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  holy  spirit  of  Fire.  He  likewise  consecrated 
the  plants  from  which  the  "black  drink"  was  prepared,  by  pouring  some 
of  the  decoction  into  the  holy  fire.  The  women  ranged  themselves  around 
the  square,  when  each  received  a  portion  of  the  new  and  pure  flame,  with 
which  they  kindled  anew  the  household  fires.  Then  they  prepared,  in  the 
best  manner,  the  new  corn  and  fruits,  and  brought  them  to  the  square, 
where  the  people  were  assembled,  appareled  in  their  new  clothes  and  dec 
orations.  "The  men  having  regaled  themselves,  the  remainder  was  carried 
off  and  distributed  among  the  families  of  the  village.  The  women  and 
children  solaced  themselves  in  their  separate  families,  and  in  the  evening 
repaired  to  the  public  square,  where  they  danced,  sung,  and  rejoiced  during 
the  whole  night,  observing  a  proper  and  exemplary  decorum;  this  they 
continued  three  days,  and  on  the  four  following  days  they  received  visits 
and  rejoiced  with  their  friends  from  neighboring  towns,  who  had  all  puri 
fied  and  prepared  themselves." 

There  were  other  rites  and  ceremonies  connected  with  the  worship  of 
these  tribes  that  might  be  studied  to  advantage;  but  those  reported  above 
were  the  most  important,  and  will  give  a  very  good  idea  of  the  ritual  as 
developed  among  these  people.  As  has  been  said,  the  religious  cult  seems 
to  have  reached  a  higher  level  here  than  it  attained  elsewhere  in  the  Mis 
sissippi  Valley  ;(192)  and  hence,  in  comparing,  as  we  shall  now  do,  their 
rites  and  customs  with  those  of  the  tribes  that  lived  north  of  the  Ohio, 
and  belonged  to  the  Huron  and  Algonquin  families,  we  must  expect  to 
find  among  the  latter  a  falling  off  in  the  forms  and  ceremonies,  rude  as 
they  undoubtedly  were,  that  characterized  the  religious  observances  of  the 
tribes  »vith  which  we  have  been  dealing. 

(192.)  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  p.  288:  Boston  reprint,  1874. 


THE    MOUNDS    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY.  47 

Beginning  with  the  tribes  along  the  south  Atlantic  coast,  we  find  that 
temples  existed  as  far  north  as  Virginia,  and  that  the  same  religious  cus 
toms  obtained  as  did  among  the  sun-worshiping  nations  of  the  lower  Mis 
sissippi.  (I93)  Lawson,  Capt.  Smith,  and  Beverly  speak  of  these  temples, 
or  quioccosan,  as  they  are  called,  as  being  very  sacred,  none  but  the  king, 
conjurer,  and  a  few  old  men  being  permitted  to  enter  them.(194)  The  last 
named  writer  gained  access  to  one  during  the  temporary  absence  of  the 
guardians,  and  from  the  account  he  has  left  of  it,  there  cannot  have  been 
much  difference  between  it  and  similar  buildings  among  the  tribes  living 
further  to  the  southward.  He  tells  us  that  it  was  used  as  a  receptacle  for 
the  bones  of  the  deceased  chieftains,  which  were  done  up  in  much  the  same 
manner  as  they  were  in  the  temple  of  the  Natchez.  It  also  contained  a 
human  figure  or  idol,  which  was  variously  termed  Okee,  Quioccos,  or 
Kiwasa;  and  I  mention  this  fact  particularly,  as  it  is  one  of  the  very 
few  instances  indicating  the  existence  of  idolatry  among  the  Indians  of 
the  United  States  that  is  entitled  to  any  weight,  though  there  are  reasons 
why  even  this  statement  should  be  taken  with  many  grains  of  allowance. 
Round  about  the  house,  at  some  distance  from  it,  were  set  up  posts  with 
faces  carved  on  them  and  painted. (I95)  According  to  Strachey,  the  priests 
who  had  the  care  of  these  temples  "mainteyne  a  continuall  fier  in  the 
same  upon  a  hearth  somewhat  neere  the  east  end."  Hariot(196)  speaks  of 
"sacred  fires,"  in  which  tobacco  was  offered  as  a  sacrifice;  and  in  the  plate 

(193.)  After  describing  the  temple  and  the  religious  customs  of  the  Natchez,  Lafitau,  vol.  I,  p.  168: 
Paris,  1724,  says :  "  Quelques  peuples  de  la  Virginie  et  de  la  Floride  out  aussi  des  Temples  et  a  peu  pres 
les  memes  devoirs  de  Religion."  "Sunne,  Moone,  and  Starre  as  pettie  Gods:"  Hariot  in  Hakluyt's  Voy 
ages,  vol.  Ill,  p.  336:  London,  1810.  "Adore  Fire,  Water,  Lightning:"  Capt.  Smith,  Virginia,  p.  34: 
London,  1632.  "Their  religion  consists  of  adoration  of  the  Sun  and  Moon:"  Carolina  by  Thomas  Ash, 
p.  36:  London,  1682.  "  In  the  morning  by  break  of  day,  before  they  eat  or  drink,  both  men  and  women 
and  children  that  be  above  ten  years  of  age,  run  into  the  water,  there  wash  themselves  a  good  while,  till 
the  Sun  riseth,  then  offer  sacrifice  to  it,  strewing  tobacco  on  the  water  or  land,  honoring  the  Sun  as  their 
God;  likewise  they  do  at  the  setting  of  the  Sun:"  Observations  in  Virginia  by  George  Percy,  in  Purchas 
Pilgrims,  vol.  IV,  p.  1690.  "It  is  a  general!  rule  of  these  people  when  they  swere  by  their  God  which  is 
the  Sunne,  no  Christian  will  keepe  their  Oath  better  upon  this  promise.  These  people  have  a  great  rever 
ence  to  the  Sunne  above  all  other  things  at  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  same,  they  sit  downe  lifting  up 
their  hands  and  eyes  to  the  Sunne  making  a  round  circle  on  the  ground  with  dried  Tobacco,  then  they 
begin  to  pray  making  many  Devilish  gestures  with  a  Hellish  noise,  foming  at  the  mouth,"  &c.:  Ibid.,  p. 
1690:  London,  1625.  "They  give  great  reverence  to  the  Sun:"  Strachey,  Historic  of  Travaile  into  Vir 
ginia,  in  publication  of  the  Hakluyt  Society,  p.  93:  London,  1849. 

(194.)  Beverly,  History  of  Virginia,  part  III,  p.  28:  London,  1705.  Lawson,  Carolina,  p.  211:  London, 
1718.  Capt.  Smith,  in  Purchas  Pilgrims,  vol.  IV,  p.  1701 :  London,  1625. 

(195.)  Compare  La  Vega,  Histoire  de  la  Floride,  premiere  partie,  p.  267  etseq.:  Paris,  1709.  Charle- 
voix  Letter,  No.  XXIX:  London,  1763.  Du  Prate,  Louisiana,  vol.  II,  p.  211:  London,  1763.  Father  Le 
Petit,  iTi  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  III,  note  to  p.  141. 

(196.)  Virginia,  I.  c.,  p.  9Q.     Hariot,  in  Hakluyt's  Voyages,  voL  III,  p.  330:  London,  1810, 


48  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY, 

which  De  Bry('97)  gives  of  this  temple  a  fire  is  represented  as  burning 
on  the  floor.  We  are  also  told  that  these  tribes  "annually  present  their 
first  fruits  of  every  season  and  kind,  namely,  of  Birds,  Beasts,  Fish,  Fruits, 
Plants,  Roots,  and  of  all  other  things  which  they  -esteem  either  of  profit 
or  pleasure  to  themselves;  and  that  they  repeat  these  offerings  as  fre 
quently  as  they  have  great  successes  in  their  wars,  or  their  fishing,  fowling, 
or  hunting.  It  was  also  their  custom  to  offer  sacrifice  upon  almost  every 
occasion.  When  they  travel  or  begin  a  long  journey,  they  burn  tobacco 
instead  of  incense  to  bribe  the  Sun  to  send  them  fair  weather  and  a  pros 
perous  voyage.  Likewise,  when  they  return  from  war,  from  hunting,  from 
fresh  journeys,  or  the  like,  they  offer  some  proportion  of  the  spoils  of  their 
chief est  tobacco,  furs,  and  paint,  as  also  the  fat  and  choice  bits  of  their 
game,"(198)  in  which  latter  respect  they  did  not  differ  from  the  Creeks  and 
Chickasaws.('") 

As  we  go  towards  the  North  the  temples  disappear,  although  traces  of  the 
rites  that  were  associated  with  them  remain.  We  are  still  among  tribes 
belonging  to  the  Algonquin  family,  and  their  religious  belief  is  said  to  have 
resembled  that  of  "cognate  tribes  of  other  stocks  and  lineage, "(20°)  what 
ever  that  may  mean.  Amid  a  host  of  supernatural  beings  or  Manitous, 
big  and  little,  good  and  bad,  they  seem  to  have  recognized  Michabou  or 
Atahocan,  the  great  hare,  as  the  chief. (201)  According  to  Schoolcraft,  they 

(197.)  Admiranda  Narratio,  plate  XXII,  Franckforti  ad  Moenum,  1590.  Beverly,  Virginia,  plates  XI 
and.  XII:  London,  1705. 

(198.)  Beverly,  Virginia,  book  III,  pp.  42  and  43.     Capt.  Smith,  in  Purchas  Pilgrims,  vol.  IV,  p.  1702. 

(199.)  Adair,  History  of  the  North  American  Indians,  pp.  117-118.     He  adds:  "  Formerly  every  hunter 
observed  the  same  religious  economy;  but  now  it  is  practiced  only  by  those  who  are  most  retentive  of, 
their  old  religious  mysteries." 

(200.)  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes,  vol.  V,  p.  402.  Hariot,  A.  I).  1586,  speaking  of  the  Virginia  Indians, 
says:  "They  believe  in  many  Gods  and  in  one  chief  God,  who  is  eternal  and  the  creator  of  the  world. 
After  this  he  created  an  order  of  inferior  Gods  to  carry  out  his  government,  among  whom  were  the  Sun, 
Moon,  and  Stars.  The  waters  were  then  made,  out  of  which  by  the  Gods  came  all  living  creatures.  He 
next  created  a  woman,  who,  by  the  'working'  of  one  of  the  Gods,  brought  forth  children,  and  'in  such 
sort  they  had  their  beginning.'  They  thought  the  Gods  were  all  of  human  shape,  and  so  represented  them 
in  their  temples  where  they  'worship,  sing,  pray,  and  make  many  times  offering  unto  them.  They 
believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  which  was  destined  to  future  happiness  in  heaven,  or  to  inhabit 
Popogusso,  a  pit  or  place  of  torment:'"  Hakluyt,  Voyages,  vol.  Ill,  p.  336:  London,  1810.  This  account 
is  so  evidently  colored  by  Christian  ideas  that  it  is  almost  worthless  for  purposes  of  comparison,  and  the 
same  may  be  said  of  Du  Pratz's  statement  of  the  religious  belief  of  the  Natchez,  in  which  the  interpola 
tions  are  even  more  marked.  For  obvious  reasons,  the  study  of  the  religious  beliefs  of  the  aborigines  is 
attended  with  many  difficulties,  though  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  Parkman  is  not  far  wrong  when  he 
asserts  that  "the  primitive  Indian  yielding  his  untutored  homage  to  One  All-pervading  and  Omnipotent 
Spirit  is  a  dream  of  poets,  rhetoricians,  and  sentimentalists:  "  Jesuits  in  North  America,  p,  LXXXIX  of  the 
preface:  Boston,  1867. 

(201.)  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  248.     La  Potherie,  Histoire  de  1' Amerique,  vol.  II,  p.  3:  Paris,  1753. 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  49 

"located  him  in  the  Sun  or  Moon,  or  indefinite  skies.  In  their  pictorial 
scrolls  they  painted  the  Sun  as  a  man's  head  surrounded  with  rays,  and 
appeared  to  confound  the  symbol  with  the  substance.  They  attributed  light 
and  life,  vitality  and  intelligence,  the  world  over,  alike  to  Monedo  and  to 
Grezis,  the  Sun."(202)  Of  the  religious  rites  of  these  tribes,  our  accounts, 
though  not  so  full  and  explicit  as  might  be  desired,  are  still  sufficiently  so 
to  indicate  most  clearly  the  existence  of  the  same  form  of  worship  as  that 
which  prevailed  among  the  tribes  of  Virginia  and  Florida.  The  Chip- 
pewas,(2°3)  as  we  have  seen,  kept  up  the  eternal  fire  until  comparatively 
recent  times.  They  said  they  had  received  the  institution  from  the  Shaw- 
nees,  and  this  is  probable,  as  that  tribe,  although  belonging,  linguistically, 
to  the  Algonquin  family,  was  more  or  less  closely  connected  with  the  Creeks, 
Natchez,  and  other  Sun- worshipping  tribes  of  the  South, (2°4)  and  must  per 
force  have  been  familiar  with,  if  not  a  sharer  in,  their  religious  observances. 
Indeed,  the  "ceremony  of  thanksgiving  for  the  first  fruits  of  the  earth,"  as 
observed  among  the  Shawnees,  attended  as  it  was  by  a  general  amnesty  for 
all  crimes  except  murder,  and,  also,  the  custom  of  "  suspending  the  head, 
horns,  and  entrails  of  the  animals  killed  for  the  sacrifice  on  a  large  white 
pole,  with  a  forked  top,  which  extends  over  the  house,  "(2°5)  are  so  similar 
to  the  same  rites  as  practiced  respectively  among  the  Creeks(2°6)  and  the 
Indians  of  the  Floridian  Peninsula(2°7)  as  to  leave  no  doubt  upon  this  point, 
even  if  we  had  not  positive  assurances  from  other  quarters  that  they  looked 
upon  the  Sun  as  the  Great  Spirit,  for  the  reason  that  he  "  animates  every 
thing,  and  is,  therefore,  clearly  the  master  of  life."(2°8)  The  Delawares 
were  closely  connected  with  the  Shawnees,  and  appear  to  have  had  many 
of  the  same  religious  ceremonies.  They  offered  sacrifices  of  tobacco  to  the 

(202.)  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes,  vol.  V,  p.  402. 

(203.)  See  above  note  155  on  p.  39.  "Vestiges  of  the  former  prevalence  of  fire  worship  exist  over 
immense  spaces,  and  its  rites  are  found  to  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the  aboriginal  religion  throughout 
the  geographical  area  of  the  United  States.  In  one  of  the  Indian  traditions,  the  preservation  of  a  sacred 
fire  is  carried  to  the  banks  of  Lake  Superior: "  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes,  vol.  V,  p.  64. 

(204.)  Archaeologia  Americana,  vol.  I,  p.  273.  Adair,  Hist.  North  American  Indians,  p.  410.  Hawkins, 
Sketch  of  the  Creek  Country,  pp.  16-18.  Lawson,  Carolina,  p.  171.  Charlevoix,  Nouvelle  France,  vol. 
I,  p.  40:  Paris,  1744.  Historical  Collections  of  Louisiana  and  Florida,  new  series,  p.  126:  New  York, 
1869.  Milfort,  Memoirs  sur  le  Creek,  p.  283:  Paris,  1802.  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes,  vol.  V,  p.  260. 

(205.)  Archreologia  Americana,  vol.  I,  p.  286. 
(206.)  See  above  note  190,  and  Lafitau,  vol.  I,  p.  180. 

(207.)  Le  Moyne,  in  De  Bry,  plate  XXXV:  Franckforti  ad  Moenum,  1591. 
(208.)  Gregg,  Commerce  of  the  Prairies,  vol.  II,  p.  237:  New  York,  1845. 
MEM. — VOL.  ii. — 4 


,50  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

Sun,(209)  and  had  a  festival  in  honpr  of  fire,  which  (Lieut.  AYlripple,  in  vol. 
Ill,  p.  20,  of  the  Explorations  of  a  Railroad  to  the  Pacific)  "they  renew 
once  a  year."  They  also,  according  to  Van  der  Donck,  swore  by  the  Sun, 
saying:  "that  he  sees  all.  They  regarded  him  and  the  Moon  as  being 
better  than  all  the  Christian  Gods,  for  they  warm  the  earth  and  cause  the 
fruits  to  grow."(2I°) 

Among  the  New  England  Indians  the  same  form  of  worship  prevailed. 
Roger  Williams  and  others  tell  us  that  they  worshiped  the  Sun  for  a 
God,(211)  and  had  a  festival  at  harvest  time.(212)  This  is  confirmed  by  Cot 
ton  Mather  so  far  as  relates  to  the  worship  of  the  Sun  and  Moon,  and  he 
adds  that  they  believe  that  every  remarkable  creature  has  a  peculiar  God 
within  it  or  about  it.(2'3)  In  the  famous  Dighton  rock  inscription  which 
stands  in  the  country  once  held  by  the  Wampanoags  the  symbol  of  the 
Sun  was  discovered  by  Chingwauk,  the  Algonquin  Meda;(214)  and  in  this 
same  region  lived  the  Narragansetts,  who,  according  to  Winslow,  "had  a 
great  spatious  house,  wherein  only  some  few  (that  are  as  we  may  term 
them  Priests)  come ;  thither  at  certain  known  times  resort  all  their  people, 
and  offer  all  the  riches  they  have  to  their  Gods,  as  Kettles,  Skins,  Hatch 
ets,  Beads,  Knives,  &c.,  all  which  are  cast  by  the  priests  into  a  great  fire 
that  they  make  in  the  midst  of  the  house,  and  there  consumed  to  ashes. 
To  this  offering  every  man  brought  freely,  and  the  more  he  is  known  to 
bring,  hath  the  better  esteem  of  all  men.  This  the  other  Indians  about 
us  approve  of  as  good,  and  with  their  Sachems  would  appoint  the  like."  (2I5) 

(209.)  Loskiel,  History  of  the  Mission  of  the  United  Brethren  among  the  Indians  of  North  America, 
pp.  41  and  43:  London,  1794. 

(210.)  In  collections  New  York  Hist.  Soc.,  new  series,  vol.  I,  pp.  213-14.  Compare  Doc.  Hist,  of  New 
York,  vol.  Ill,  p.  22. 

(211.)  Williams'  Key,  pp.  39-79-110.  "Some  for  their  God  adore  the  sun:"  Gookin,  in  Coll.  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.,  first  series,  vol.  I,  p.  154.  "Devotion  to  the  principles  of  Sun  worship  '  *  *  spread  to  the 
prominent  peaks  of  the  Monadnock  and  to  the  waters  of  the  Narragansett :  "  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes, 
vol.  V,  p.  104.  "Us  croyent  un  Dieu,  ce  disent  ils;  mais  il  ne  scauent  le  nommer  que  du  nom  ilu  Soleil, 
*  *  *  quand  ils  etoient  eu  necessity  il  prenoit  sa  robe  sacree,  et  se  tournant  versl' Orient  disait:  Nostre 
Soleil,  ou  nostre  Dieu  donne-nous  a  manger:"  Relation  des  Jesuites  A.  D.  1611-1G22,  vol.  I,  p.  20:  Que 
bec,  1858.  Indians  of  Martha's  Vineyard  "begged  of  the  Sun  and  Moon  *  *  *  to  send  them  the 
desired  favor:"  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  first  series,  vol.  I,  p.  140. 

(212.)  Williams'  Key,  p.  111. 

(213.)  Magnalia,  vol.  I,  p.  505:  Hartford,  1820. 

(214.)  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes,  vol.  V,  p.  64. 

(215.)  Purchas  Pilgrims,  vol.  IV,  p.  1868:  London.  1625, 


THE   MOULDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  51 

Farther  to  the  east,  the  Souriquois,  as  we  are  told  by  Father  Sagard,  (2l6) 
had  the  same  form  of  worship. 

In  the  Northwest,  the  sun  and  thunder  were  the  Gods  of  the  tribes  that 
lived  around  Green  Bay,  and  in  all  that  region  out  of  which  were  subse 
quently  formed  the  States  of  Wisconsin  and  Illinois.(2'7)  When  the  Illinois 
came  to  moot  Marquette  on  the  occasion  of  his  voyage — the  first  ever  made 

* 

by  a  white  man — down  that  portion  of  the  Mississippi,  they  marched 
slowly,  lifting  their  pipes  to  the  Sun,  as  if  offering  them  to  him  to  smoke. 
They  also  make  a  similar  offering  to  him  when  they  wish  to  obtain  calm, 
or  rain,  or  fair  weather.(2lS)  Among  the  Ottawas,  of  Michigan,  prayers 
were  offered  to  the  Sun,  and  tobacco  was  burned  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  same 
deity. (2I9)  Indeed,  the  use  of  tobacco  as  an  offering  seems  to  have  been 
universal  among  the  American  Indians.  Charlevoix  (22°)  and  Lafitau(221) 
both  speak  of  the  practice  as  being  general,  and  their  statements  are  con- 

(216.)  Voyages  des  Hurons,  p.  226:  Paris,  1632.  "Soleil  qui  ils  ont  adore  et  qui  a  tonjours  ete  1' object 
constant  de  leur  culte,  de  leurs  hommages  et  de  leur  adoration:"  Nouvelle  Relation  de  la  Gaspesie,  p.  166: 
Paris,  1691.  "Ils  appellent  le  Soleil,  Jesus.  *  *  *  De  la  vient  que  quand  nous  faisons  nos  priere  il 
leur  semble  que  comme  eux  nous  addressons  nos  priere  au  Soleil: "  Relation  de  la  Nouvelle  France  en 
1'  annee  1626,  p.  4:  Quebec,  1858. 

(217.)  Father  Marquette,  in  Relation,  1670,  p.  90.  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  210:  London,  1763.  "Some 
of  the  savages  will  confess  *  that  the  Sun  is  God :"  Hennepin,  Voyage  into  a  Newly  Discovered 

Country,  p.  65:  London,  1698.  Father  Marquette,  in  Discovery  and  Exploration  of  the  Mississippi,  p. 
LIV. 

(218.)  Relation  of  Father  Marquette  (A.  D.  1678),  I  c.,  pp.  21-22-35:  New  York,  1852.  The  Sioux, 
though  belonging  to  a  different  linguistic  family,  and  living  on  the  other  side  of  the  Mississippi,  had 
similar  customs.  According  to  Hennepin,  who  is  not  always  good  authority,  but  who  may,  I  think,  be 
followed  in  this  instance,  "  they  offer  also  to  the  Sun  the  best  Part  of  the  Beast  they  kill ;  *  *  *  also 
the  first  Smoak  of  their  Calumets,  *  *  *  which  makes  me  believe  they  have  a  religious  veneration 
for  the  Sun:"  New  Discovered  Country,  &c.,  vol.  I,  p.  140:  London,  1698.  Compare  on  this  point  School- 
craft,  Indian  Tribes,  vol.  Ill,  p.  226-7,  and  Nuttall,  Arkansa  Territory,  p.  276 :  Philadelphia,  1821. 

(219.)  Un  viellard  des  plus  considerables  de  la  Bourgade  fait  fonction  de  Pretre;  il  commence  par  une 
Harangue  etudiee  qu'il  addresse  au  Soleil;  *  *  *  il  declare  tout  haut  qu'il  fait  ses  remerciemens  a 
cet  astre,  de  ce  qu'il  1'a  e"claire  pour  tuer  heureusement  quelque  bete:  il  le  prie  et  1'exhorte  par  ce 
festin  a  lui  continner  les  soins  charitables  qu'  il  a  de  sa  famille.  Pendant  cette  invocation,  tous  les  con- 
vies  mangent  Jusqu'  au  dernier  morceau :  apres  quoi  un  honime  destine  a  cela  preud  un  pain  de  Petun, 
le  ronipt  eu  deux  et  le  jette  daus  le  feu.  Tout  le  monde  crie  pendant  que  le  petun  se  consume,  et  que 
la  fumee  monte  eu  haut:  et  avec  ces  clameurs  termine  le  sacrifice:"  Lafitau,  vol.  II,  p.  134.  "Sacrifice 
to  the  Sun:"  La  Hontan,  vol.  II,  p.  32.  Relation  en  1'  annee  1667,  pp.  7,  11 :  Quebec,  1858. 

(220.)  "They  make  to  all  these  Spirits  different  sorts  of  offerings,  which  you  may  call,  if  you  please, 
sacrifices.  They  throw  into  the  Rivers  and  the  lakes  Petun,  Tobacco,  or  birds  that  have  had  their  throats 
cut,  to  render  the  God  of  the  waters  propitious  to  them.  In  honor  of  the  Sun,  and  sometimes  also  of  the 
Inferior  Spirits,  they  throw  into  the  Fire  Part  of  every  Thing  they  use,  and  which  they  acknowledge  to 
hold  from  them.  It  is  sometimes  out  of  Gratitude,  but  oftener  through  Interest:"  Letters,  p.  252. 

(221.)  "II  est  certain  que  le  Tabac  est  en  Amerique  une  herbe  consacre*  a  plusieurs  exercices,  et  a  plu- 
sieurs  usages  de  la  Religion:"  Moeurs  des  Sauvages  Ameriquains,  vol.  II,  p.  133  et  seq.,  also  vol.  I,  p.  179. 
Schoolcraft,  vol.  VI,  note  to  p.  109,  says ;  "  The  Nicotiana  was  smoked  and  offered  as  incense  to  the  Great 
Spirit  by  all -the  northern  tribes." 


52  THE    MOUNDS   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

firmed  by  writers  who  have  left  us  accounts  of  the  rites  and  ceremonies 
as  practiced  by  the  different  tribes.  Thus  Hariot,  who  wrote  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  tells  us  that  this  plant  was  held  in  such 
esteem  by  the  Indians  of  Virginia  that  they  imagined  that  their  Gods  were 
pleased  when  it  was  offered  to  them.  It  was  for  this  reason  that,  from 
time  to  time,  they  built  sacred  fires,  on  which  they  burnt  this  plant  as  a 
sacrifice.  He  also  adds,  that  when  they  are  surprised  by  a  tempest  they 
scatter  it  upon  the  water,  or  throw  it  up  in  the  air;  and  they  also  put  it 
in  their  new  nets  in  order  to  insure  success  in  fishing.(222)  There  was  also 
something  of  a  religious  character  in  the  practice  common  among  all  the 
Indian  tribes  of  the  United  States  of  smoking  the  calumet  as  a  preliminary 
to  any  treaty,  or  bargain,  or  agreement  of  any  kind.  According  to  Charle- 
voix,  the  Indians  claimed  to  have  "received  the  calumet  from  the  Panis, 
to  whom  it  had  been  given  by  the  Sun,  and  they  held  it  so  sacred  that 
there  was  probably  no  instance  of  an  agreement  made  in  this  manner  that 
was  ever  violated.  They  believed  that  the  Great  Spirit  would  not  leave 
such  a  breach  of  faith  unpunished.  *  *  *  In  trade,  when  an  exchange 
has  been  agreed  upon,  a  calumet  is  smoked  in  order  to  bind  the  bargain, 
and  this  makes  it  in  some  manner  sacred.  *  *  There  is  no  reason 

to  doubt  that  the  Indians,  in  making  those  smoke  the  calumet  with  whom 
they  wish  to  trade  or  treat,  intend  to  call  upon  the  Sun  as  a  witness  and 
in  some  fashion  as  a  guarantee  of  their  treaties,  for  they  never  fail,"  so  the 
old  chronicler  tells  us,  "to  blow  the  smoke  toward  that  star."(223) 

If,  now,  we  turn  to  the  tribes  of  the  Huron-Iroquois  stock,  we  shall  find 
that  the  sun  was  not  less  an  object  of  worship.  In  the  Relation  of  1648 
we  are  told  that  they  invoked  him  as  a  judge  of  their  sincerity,  who  saw 
into  the  depth  of  all  hearts,  and  who  would  punish  the  perfidy  of  those 
who  broke  their  faith,  or  failed  to  keep  their  word.  Lafitau  states  posi 
tively  that  Areskoui  and  Agreskoue  (the  difference  is  said  to  be  linguistic), 
the  war  God  of  the  Hurons  and  the  Iroquois,  was  but  another  name  for 

(222.)  Hakluyt,  Voyages,  vol.  Ill,  p.  330:  London,  1810.  Compare  Champlain,  p.  208:  Paris,  1632. 
Sagard,  Voyage  des  Hurons,  vol.  I,  p.  161:  Paris,  1865.  Bartram,  p.  497.  Relation  en  1'annee  1037,  pp. 
108-144. 

(223.)  Charlevoix,  Letters,  pp.  133  et  seq.:  London,  1763.  Bartram,  in  his  MSS.  quoted  in  Serpent 
Symbol,  p.  69:  New  York,  1851,  says  of  the  Creeks:  "They  pay  a  kind  of  homage  to  the  Sun,  Moon,  and 
Planets.  *  *  *  They  seem  particularly  to  reverence  the  Sun  as  the  symbol  of  the  Power  and  Benefi 
cence  of  the  Great  Spirit,  and  as  his  minister.  Thus  at  treaties  they  first  puff  or  blow  the  smoke  from 
the  great  pipe  or  calumet  towards  that  luminary;  and  they  look  up  to  it  with  great  reverence  and  ear 
nestness  when  they  confirm  their  talks  or  speeches  in  council  as  a  witness  of  their  contracts."  "Osages 
smoked  to  God  or  the  Sun:"  Nuttall,  Arkansa  Territory,  p.  95:  Philadelphia,  1821, 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  53 

the  Sun,  "who  was  their  Divinity  as  he  was  that  of  all  the  Americans.  "(224) 
La  Hontan  confirms  the  fact  of  their  worship  of  this  luminary,  and  says 
that,  when  "  asked  why  they  adore  God  in  the  sun  rather  than  in  a  tree  or 
mountain,"  their  answer  is  that  they  choose  to  admire  the  Deity  in  public, 
pointing  to  the  most  glorious  thing  that  nature  affords.  (22S)  According  to 
Lafitau  (226)  they  had  no  temples,  and  did  not  keep  up  a  perpetual  fire ;  at 
least  there  was  not  a  vestige  left  of  any  such  building  in  his  time,  and  no 
mention  of  any  such  institution  in  any  of  the  "Relations"  of  the  Jesuit 
Fathers.  This,  however,  can  hardly  be  considered  decisive  of  the  point, 
since  we  are  given  to  understand  that  these  tribes  had  lost  many  of  their 
religious  customs ;  (227)  and  in  this  very  connection  are  assured  that  the 
fire  on  their  hearths  took  the  place  of  an  altar,  and  that,  as  was  the  case 
among  the  Creeks  and  Cherokees,  their  "council  houses  served  them  as 
temples. "(228)  Bearing  upon  this  point,  and  as  an  evidence  of  the  identity 
of  the  religious  rites  and  ceremonies  everywhere  prevalent,  we  may  note 
that,  once  a  year,  they  were  accustomed  to  put  out  all  the  fires  of  the 
tribe,  and  to  rekindle  them  with  fire  supplied  by  the  priests,  (229)  as  was 
the  case  among  the  Southern  tribes.  Morgan,  it  is  true,  does  not  mention 
this  custom  in  his  account  of  the  Iroquois  festivals,  but  he  describes  the 
practice  o£  "stirring  the  ashes  on  the  hearth,"  which- took  place  at  their 
New  Year's  Jubilee, (23°)  and  it  is  possible  that  there  may  have  been  some 
connection  between  the  two. 

Among  their  sacrifices  there  were  some  that  seem  to  have  been  peculiar 
to  the  Northern  nations.  Thus,  for  instance,  although  the  dog  was  a  favor 
ite  article  of  food  among  the  tribes,  both  north  and  south  of  the  Ohio,  and 
was  not  unfrequently  offered  as  a  sacrifice,  yet  I  do  not  find  that  anywhere 
else  they  "hung  him  up  alive  on  a  tree  by  the  hind  feet,  and  let  him  die 
there  raving  mad."(231)  They  were  in  the  habit  of  exposing,  on  the  tops 

(224.)  Moeurs  des  Sauvages-  Ameriquains,  vol.  I,  p.  132-206:  Paris,  1724. 
(225.)  La  Hontan,  Voyages,  vol.  II,  pp.  22  and  33:  London,  1703. 

(226.)  Lafitau,  vol.  I,  p.  166. 

(227.)  Ibid.,  vol.  I,  pp.  282-341. 

(228.)  Ibid.,  vol.  I,  p.  167. 

(229.)  Schoolcraft,  Notes  on  the  Iroquois,  p.  85:  New  York,  1846. 

(230.)  Morgan,  League  of  the  Iroquois,  p,  207  et  seq.:  Rochester. 

(231.)  Lafitau,  vol.  I,  p.  180,  says  that  this  custom  prevailed  among  the  Montagnais  and  other  Algon 
quin  tribes  to  the  North,  but  Charlevoix  makes  no  such  distinction.  He  asserts  it  of  all  the  Indians  of 
Canada.  •  See  Letter,  p.  252.  Compare  League  of  the  Iroquois,  pp.  207  et  seq.,  and  McKenzie,  History  of 
Fur  Trade,  quoted  in  p.  121  of  Serpent  Symbol. 


54  THE    MOUXDS   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

of  their  cabins,  strings  and  necklaces  of  beads,  bunches  of  corn,  and  even 
animals,  which  they  consecrated  to  the  Sun.(232)  They  also  made  burnt 
offerings  to  the  same  Divinity  of  corn,  of  animals  taken  in  the  chase,  and 
of  tobacco  or  other  plants  that  served  them  in  its  place,  (233)  in  much  the 
same  manner  as  was  done  among  the  tribes  belonging  to  the  Algonquin 
and  Appalachian  families.  In  their  war  sacrifices,  the  Iroquois  take  "the 
leg  of  a  deer  or  bear,  or  some  other  wild  beast,  rub  it  with  fat,  and  then 
throw  it  on  the  fire,  praying  the  Sun  to  accept  the  offering,  to  light  their 
paths,  to  lead  them  and  give  them  the  victory  over  their  enemies,  to  make 
the  corn  of  their  fields  to  grow,  to  give  them  a  successful  hunt  or  fish."(234) 
They  also  had  their  annual  festivals,  among  which  that  of  the  Green  Corn 
was  one  of  the  most  important.  It  was  celebrated  when  the  corn  became 
fit  for  use,  usually  lasted  several  days,  and  was  the  counterpart  of  the  feast 
of  the  Busk,  as  observed  among  the  Indians  of  the  Gulf  States.  Morgan 
paints,  with  a  loving  hand,  the  simple  ceremonies  with  which  the  Iroquois 
of  later  times  were  swont,  annually,  at  this  festival,  to  return  thanks  to  the 
Great  Spirit  for  his  bounty,  and  to  solicit  a  continuance  of  his  favor  and 
protection.  It  was  at  this  time  that  they  offered  a  sacrifice  of  tobacco, 
believing  that  they  could  communicate  with  him  through  its  incense  ;(235) 
and  in  their  prayers- they  returned  thanks  "to  our  mother,  the  earth,  which 
sustains  us  ;  *  *  to  the  corn,  and  to  her  sisters,  the  beans  and  the 

squashes,  which  give  us  life ;  *  *  *  to  the  sun,  that  he  looked  upon 
the  earth  with  a  beneficent  eye,  and  lastly  to  the  Great  Spirit,  in  whom 
is  embodied  all  goodness,  and  who  directs  all  things  for  the  good  of  his 
children.  "(236) 

Thus  far  we  have  been  considering  the  religious  rites  and  customs  of  the 
different  tribes  of  Indians  that  occupied  the  eastern  portion  of  the  Missis 
sippi  Valley,  and  we  have  seen  that  there  was  a  general  sameness  pervad 
ing  them,  and  that  all  grew  out  of,  or  were  connected  with,  the  worship  of 
the  sun.  If  now  we  turn  from  this  theme  and  examine  into  their  myths, 
we  shall  find  that,  though  the  path  be  different,  yet  it  leads  to  the  same 
result. 

(232.)  Charlevoix,  Letters,  p.  252.    Lafitau,  vol.  I,  p.  180. 

(233.)  Lafitau,  vol.  I,  p.  179. 

(234.)  Ibid.,  vol.  I,  pp.  208-9:  Paris,  1724. 

(235.)  League  of  the  Iroquois,  pp.  198  and  217:  Rochester,  1851. 

(236.)  Ibid.,  p.  203-4. 


THE   MOUNDS   OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  55 

Accepting  the  Natchez  as  a  type  of  the  group  of  Southern  tribes,  we 
are  told  that,  ages  ago,  a  child  of  the  Sun,  who  saw  and  pitied  their  disor 
ganized  condition,  came  down  with  his  wife  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
order  and  instituting  religious  rites  and  ceremonies  among  them.  He  gave 
them  certain  precepts — political  as  well  as  religious — for  their  better  gov 
ernment;  and,  having  conducted  them  into  a  better  land,  he  became  at 
last,  after  much  solicitation,  their  sovereign.  It  was  through  him  that  the 
Natchez  claimed  their  descent  from  the  Sun,  and  from  him  they  took  the 
official  title  of  their  chief.  This  is  the  myth  as  told  by  Du  Pratz,(237)  and 
though  unfortunately  the  religious  precepts  which  are  said  to  have  been 
inculcated  bear  a  most  suspicious,  and,  under  the  circumstances,  absurd 
likeness  to  the  Ten  Commandments,  yet  it  is  possible  that  the  rest  of  the 
story  may  be  genuine. 

Among  the  Algonquin  tribes  we  are  on  firmer  ground.  Here  we  have 
the  old  story  of  "the  conflict  between  light  and  darkness,  in  which  the 
former,  personified  under  the  name  of  Michabo,  is  the  conqueror.  He  is 
the  giver  of  light  and  life,  the  creator  and  preserver,  *  *  *  and  in 
origin  and  deeds  he  is  the  not  unworthy  personification  of  the  purest  con 
ception  they  possessed  of  the  Father  of  All.  To  Him,  at  early  dawn,  the 
Indian  stretched  forth  his  hands  in  prayer;  and  to  the  sky  or  the  Sun  as 
his  home"(238)  or,  it  may  be  added,  as  his  representative,  or  as  this  deity 
himself,  he  offered  the  first  whiff  of  his  morning  pipe. 

Among  the  Huron-Iroquois  we  find  this  same  myth,  though  under  differ 
ent  names.  With  them  the  contest  was  between  loskeha  and  Tawiscara, 
names  which,  according  to  Brinton,  signify,  in  the  Oneida  dialect,  the  White 
one  and  the  Dark  one.  "They  were  twins,  born  of  a  virgin  mother,  who 
died  in  giving  them  life.  Their  grandmother,  was  the  moon,  called  by  the 
Hurons  Ataensic.  The  brothers  quarrelled,  and  finally  came  to 

blows,  the  former  using  the  horns  of  a  stag  and  the  latter  the  wild  rose. 
He  of  the  weaker  weapon  was  very  naturally  discomfited  and  sorely 
wounded.  Fleeing  for  his  life,  the  blood  gushed  from  him  at  every  step, 
and  turned  into  flint  stones.  The  victor  returned  to  his  grandmother,  and 
established  his  lodge  in  the  far  east,  on  the  borders  of  the  great  ocean 

(237.)  History  of  Louisiana,  vol.  II,  pp.  175  et  seq.  and  202:  London,  1763. 

(238.)  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  183:  New  York,  1876.  Compare  Schoolcraft,  Indian 
Tribes,  vol.  V,  pp.  402-417.  Eelation  de  la  Nouvelle  France  en  I'anne'e  1633-1634,  pp.  16  and  13 
respectively:  Quebec,  1858.  Lafitau,  vol.  I,  pp.  126-145:  Paris,  1724.  La  Potherie,  vol.  II,  chapter  I: 
Paris,  1753. 


56  THE    MOCXDS    OF    THE    MISSISS1  I'I'l     VALLI-lV. 

whence  the  sun  comes.  In  time  he  became  the  father  of  mankind,  and 
the  special  guardian  of  the  Iroquois.  The  earth  was,  at  first,  arid  and 
sterile,  but  he  destroyed  the  gigantic  frog  which  had  swallowed  the  waters, 
and  guided  the  torrents  into  smooth  streams  and  lakes.  The  woods  he 
stocked  with  game;  and  having  learned  from  the  tortoise  how  to  make  fire, 
he  taught  his  children,  the  Indians,  this  indispensable  art."(239)  "With 
out  his  aid,"  says  Father  Breboeuf,  "they  did  not  think  their  pots  could 
boiL  *  *  *  He  it  was  who  gave  them  the  corn  which  they  ate,  and 
who  made  it  grow  and  ripen;  if  their  fields  were  green  in  the  springtime, 
if  they  gathered  plentiful  harvests,  and  their  cabins  overflowed  with  grain, 
they  owed  thanks  to  no  one  save  Ioskeha,"(24°)  the  Sun.(241) 

This  completes  our  brief  examination  into  the  religious  belief  and  cus 
toms  of  the  American  Indians  living  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  south  of 
the  great  lakes.  In  it  we  have  glanced  rapidly  at  their  myths  and  their 
beliefs,  and  the  rites  and  ceremonies  to  which  these  gave  rise,  and  we  have 
found  that  each  line  of  investigation  led  to  one  and  the  same  result.  In 
view,  then,  of  this  uniformity,  and  of  the  overwhelming  array  of  direct 
evidence  that  has  been  offered  on  the  point,  I  do  not  think  it  is  overstep 
ping  the  bounds  of  moderation  to  claim,  with  the  old  chronicler,  that  within 
the  limits  named,  "the  American  Indians,  so  far  as  known,  without  the 
exception  of  a  single  tribe,  worshiped  the  sun."(242) 

(239.)  Thus  far  I  have  copied  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  183,  who  has  followed  Father 
Breboeuf,  Relation  de  la.  Nouvelle  France  enl'ann^e,  1636,  seconde  partie,  chap.  I:  Quebec,  1858.  In 
what  follows  I  prefer  to  stick  to  the  text  of  the  old  Father. 

(240.)  "Ils  tiennent  aussi  que  sans  louskeha  leur  chandiere  ne  pourroit  bouillir,  *  *  *  a  les  enten 
dre,  c'est  louskeha  qui  leur  donne  le  bled  qu'ils  mangent,  c'estluy  qui  le  fait  croistre  et  le  conduit  a 
maturite;  s'ils  voyent  leurs  campagnes  verdoyantes  au  Prjntemps,  s'ils  recueillent  de  belles  et  planture- 
uses  moissons,  et  si  leurs  cabanes  regorgent  d'  espies,  ils  n'en  ont  1 ' obligation  qu'a  louskeha:"  Rela 
tion  de  la  Nouvelle  France  en  1'annee  1636,  p.  103:  Quebec,  1858. 

(241.)  "Mais  pour  retourner  a  Aataentsic  et  louskeha,  ils  tiennent  que  louskeha  est  le  Soleil,  et  Aatanilxir, 
la  Lune,  et  toute-fois  leur  cabane  est  situee  au  bout  de  la  terre:';  Relation,  1636,  p.  102:  Quebec,  1858. 

(242.)  "Le  Soleil  est  la  Divinite  des  Peuples  de  1'Amerique,  sans  en  excepter  aucun  de  ceux  qui 
nous  sont  connus:"  Lafitau,  Moeurs  des  Sauvages  Ameriquains,  vol.  I,  p.  130:  Paris,  1724. 


SECTION  III. 
THE  INDIANS  AS  MOUND-BUILDERS. 

Thus  far,  in  the  course  of  this  investigation,  my  position  has  been  rather 
a  negative  one.  It  is  true  that  an  effort  has  been  made  to  show,  and  it  is 
believed  with  some  measure  of  success,  that  the  red  Indian  of  historic 
times  was  both  an  agriculturist  and  a  worshiper  of  the  sun,  and  that  hence, 
even  according  to  the  admission  of  those  who  hold  a  contrary  opinion, 
there  are  no  reasons,  a  priori,  why  he  could  not  have  erected  these  works. 
This  is,  unquestionably,  a  step  in  the  right  direction ;  and  with  this  point 
gained,  I  might  well  aiford  to  rest  the  argument.  It  would  not,  however, 
be  by  any  means  decisive  of  the  question  as  to  the  origin  of  these  struct 
ures,  since  the  fact  that  an  Indian  might  have  built  them  does  not  justify 
us  in  concluding  that  he  actually  did  do  so.  To  fill  up,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  gap  that  separates  the  ability  to  do  a  certain  piece  of  work  from  its 
actual  performance,  it  will  be  necessary,  in  this  case,  to  abandon  the  seem 
ingly  negative  position  hitherto  occupied,  and  to  inquire  whether  there  is 
any  evidence  that  the  Indian  has,  at  any  time,  constructed  works  of  the 
same  character,  though  perhaps  not  of  the  same  size,  as  the  largest  of 
those  found  in  the  Ohio  Valley.  If  it  can  be  shown  that  he  has  done  so, 
it  is  believed  that  it  will  justify  us  in  ascribing  all  these  structures  to  his 
agency,  for  the  reason  that  these  mound  centres,  with  scarcely  a  single 
exception,  can  be  proven  to  have  been,  at  some  time,  the  seats  of  mound- 
building  Indians,  and  because,  never,  so  far  as  we  know,  have  they  been 
held,  even  temporarily,  by  any  other  race  of  people  previous  to  the  arrival 
"of  the  whites. 

In  pursuing  this  branch  of  our  inquiry,  the  only  method  open  to  us  is 
to  proceed  by  comparison.  For  obvious  reasons,  we  can  never  know  the 
particular  individuals  by  whom  these  works  were  erected,  nor  can  we, 
except  in  a  few  cases,  even  hope  to  do  more  than  approximate  the  time 
when  they  were  built.  All  that  can  be  accomplished  in  the  present  state 
of  our  knowledge  is  to  show,  by  a  comparison  of  these  remains  with  simi 
lar  works  that  are  known  to  have  been  erected  by  the  modern  Indians, 
that  there  are  no  such  differences  between  them  as  would  authorize  the 


58  THE    MOULDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

inference  that  they  were  built  by  different  peoples,  or  by  the  same  people 
in  different  stages  of  civilization. 

To  institute  a  comparison  of  this  character  seems  like  a  very  simple 
matter,  and  it  would  be  so  if  there  were  any  way  of  establishing  a  hard 
and  fast  line  of  demarkation  between  the  works  of  the  Indians  and  those 
of  the  so-called  mound-builders.  Unfortunately,  however,  or  perhaps  it 
might  be  more  correct  for  me  to  say  fortunately,  nothing  of  the  kind  can 
,  be  done;  for  though,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  mounds  and  earth-works  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley  do  vary  indefinitely  in  size,  shape,  location,  grouping, 
and  possibly  in  many  other  respects,  yet  these  are  all  differences  of  degree 
and  not  of  kind ;  and  however  great  the  distance  between  the  extremes  in 
any  one  of  these  particulars,  it  is  not  of  such  a  radical  character  as  to 
indicate  a  difference  in  the  civilization  of  the  people  who  constructed  the 
works.  Griven  time  and  an  indefinite  supply  of  laborers,  and  there  is  no 
reason  why  the  people  who  built  one  might  not  have  built  any  and  all  of 
them.  The  simple  manual  labor  necessary  to  their  construction  was  essen 
tially  the  same  in  every  case,  the  only  question  being  as  to  the  amount. 
That  this  is  so  is  evident  from  the  fact  that,  when  considered  solely  with 
reference  to  the  kind  and  amount  of  this  labor,  these  works  are  found  to 
grade  into  each  other  by  such  imperceptible  stages  that,  admitting  them 
to  have  been  erected  by  different  peoples,  it  is  impossible  to  say  where  the 
work  of  one  ended  and  that  of  the  other  began.  This  statement  has,  I 
know,  met  with  more  or  less  opposition,  and  it  is  quite  likely  that  in  the 
future,  as  in  the  past,  we  shall  be  told  of  the  existence  of  some  line  of 
demarkation  between  them,  though  it  is  possible  that  the  attempt  to  fix  and 
define  it  will  not  meet  with  any  better  success  than  has  crowned  former 
efforts  in  the  same  direction.  Size,  shape,  and  probable  use  have,  at  differ 
ent  times,  been  thought  to  furnish  a  key  to  the  mystery;  and  either  singly 
or  together  they  are  still,  occasionally,  made  to  do  duty  in  this  capacity; 
but  with  all  due  deference  to  those  who  so  pertinaciously  seek  for  differ 
ences  where  none  exist,  it  may  be  said,  without  fear  of  successful  contra 
diction,  that,  thus  far,  not  one  of  these  so-called  distinguishing  features 
has  been  able  to  stand  the  test  of  intelligent  criticism;  and  that  to-day 
it  looks  very  much  as  if  it  would  be  necessary  to  fall  back  upon  what  a 
recent  writer  terms  "indefinable  marks"  and  "resemblances  that  cannot 
be  described,"  in  order  to  find  a  foundation  for  the  theory  of  a  difference 
in  the  character  of  these  works,  and,  consequently,  in  the  civilization  of 


MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  59 

the  people  who  built  them.  Indeed,  the  advocates  of  this  theory  do  not 
agree  among  themselves  as  to  where  this  line  should  be  drawn;  and  from 
the  very  nature  of  the  case  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  it  is  possible 
for  them  ever  to  attain  any  very  great  degree  of  harmony.  The  Mound- 
builders  are,  at  best,  a  mythical  people,  who  owe  even  their  imaginary 
existence  to  the  necessity  of  accounting  for  a  state  of  affairs  that  is,  in 
great  part,  assumed;  and  of  course  any  standard  by  which  to  judge  the 
works  they  are  supposed  to  have  executed  must  vary  with  the  fancy  of  the 
writer  or  the  exigencies  of  the  argument.  But  even  if  this  were  not  the 
case,  and  there  were  no  subjective  obstacles  in  the  way  of  uniformity  of 
opinion  upon  this  vital  point,  it  would  still  be  impossible  to  establish  any 
test  or  standard,  for  the  reason  that,  except  in  the  fact  that  a  large  majority 
of  the  mounds  and  embankments  "are  made  of  earth  simply  heaped  up, 
with  little  or  no  care  in  the  choice  of  material,  and  none  at  all  in  the  order 
of  deposit, "(0  there  are  no  two  of  them  that  are  alike;  and  without  the 
presence  of  some  conformation  that  is,  at  least,  constant,  it  is,  of  course, 
idle  to  speak  of  a  type  or  standard. 

To  make  this  point  clearer,  let  us  glance  at  these  remains  as  they  have 
come  down  to  us,  and  putting  aside,  as  far  as  possible,  all  theories  and 
speculations  as  to  their  origin  and  use,  let  us  question  them  as  to  the  civ 
ilization  of  which,  they  are  the  silent  witnesses.  To  this  end,  it  will  be 
advisable  to  discard,  as  far  as  may  be  consistent  with  clearness,  the  descrip 
tive  nomenclature  that  has  been  used  in  the  classification  of  these  works, 
and  to  adopt  one  that  will  be  less  productive  of  false  and  erroneous  ideas 
as  to  the  object  or  purpose  for  which  many  of  them  were  intended.  As 
an  instance  of  the  errors  arising  from  this  source,  take  the  term  "  sacred 
enclosure,"  which  has  been  applied  to  a  class  of  works  that  is  usually  found 
upon  the  broad  and  level  river  terraces,  and  is  composed  of  mounds  and 
embankments  or  inclosures,  sometimes  standing  alone,  but  more  frequently 
grouped  together  in  a  more  or  less  complicated  manner.  This  term  has 
been  long  in  use,  and  by  a  sort  of  prescriptive  right  is  sometimes  regarded 
as  describing  accurately  the  character  of  the  works  to  which  it  has  been 
applied,  when,  in  point  of  fact,  it  does  nothing  of  the  kind.  A  few  of 
these  inclosures  may,  possibly,  owe  their  origin  to  a  religious  sentiment, 
but  of  the  large  majority  of  them  it  may  be  safely  said,  in  view  of  recent 
investigations,  that  they  were  simply  fortified  villages.  Self-protection  was 

(1.)  Bancroft,  Native  Kaces  of  the  Pacific  States,  vol.  IV,  p.  766:  New  York,  1875. 


60  THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

the  primary  object  of  the  people  who  lived  behind  these  walls,  and  except 
in  the  single  fact  that  some  of  the  truncated  mounds  occasionally  found 
associated  with  them  may  have  been  the  sites  of  rude  mud  temples,  there , 
is  not  a  particle  of  evidence  to  show  that  they  had  anything  to  do  with  any 
religious  rite  or  custom  whatsoever.  Indeed,  if  it  be  admitted  that  the 
Mound-builder  belonged  to  a  race  separate  and  distinct  from  the  Indian,  it 
cannot  be  conclusively  shown  that  he  had  any  religion  at  all.  "What  little 
evidence  there  is  bearing  upon  the  point  is  drawn  from  analogy,  and  singu 
larly  enough  is  based  upon  the  fact  that  the  Indians  of  the  Southern  States, 
from  Florida  to  Missouri,  erected  just  such  mounds  as  sites  for  their  tem 
ples.^)  Unfortunately,  however,  for  the  analogy,  these  same  Indians  were 
in  the  habit  of  placing  the  cabins  of  their  chiefs  upon  precisely  similar 
mounds,  which  were  also  built  especially  for  the  purpose. (3)  This  fact 
alone  is  sufficient  to  invalidate  any  conclusion  as  to  the  religious  character 
of  these  structures ;  and,  of  course,  any  inference  as  to  the  object  or  pur 
pose  of  the  inclosures  in  which  they  are  sometimes  found,  based  upon  this 
conclusion,  must  fall  with  it.  But  even  if  these  works  were  all  that  is 
claimed  for  them,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  this  fact  could  be  con 
strued  into  an  argument  in  favor  of  the  theory  that  these  truncated  mounds, 
which  are  everywhere  identical  in  form  and  in  the  probable  uses  for  which 
they  were  intended,  could  have  been  the  work  of  two  different  peoples,  or 
of  the  same  people  in  different  stages  of  civilization,  though  its  importance 
as  a  link  in  the  chain  of  evidence  that  points  to  the  identity  of  the  South 
ern  Indians  with  the  Mound-builders  is  at  once  apparent. 

Returning  from  this  long  digression,  and  bearing  in  mind  the  caution  as 
to  the  misleading  character  of  the  terms  used  in  these  investigations,  let  us 
resume  the  thread  of  our  inquiry,  and  divesting  these  remains  of  the 
glamour  that  attaches  to  them  as  the  work  of  an  extinct  people,  let  us 
endeavor  to  see  them  as  they  are,  and  to  interpret,  as  far  as  may  be,  the 
story  they  have  to  tell. 

Speaking  in  a  general  way,  the  Mississippi  Valley  system  of  earth-works 
may  be  said  to  embrace  all  that  region  that  lies  between  the  great  lakes  on 
the  north  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the  south,  and  to  be  bounded  on  the 

(2.)  See  above  note  170  on  p.  42. 

(3.)  Biedma  and  Knight  of  Elvas,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  II,  pp.  105  and  123:  La  Vega,  Con- 
qugte  de  la  Floride,  pp.  136  and  294:  A  la  Hayc,  1735.  Herrera,  vol.  VI,  pp.  5  and  6:  London,  1740. 
La  Harpe  and  Le  Petit,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  III,  pp.  106  and  note  to  p.  142.  Du  Pratz,  His 
tory  of  Louisiana,  vol.  II,  p.  188 :  London,  1763. 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  61 

west  by  the  tier  of  States  that  lines  the  western  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
on  the  east  by  a  line  drawn  through  the  middle  of  the  States  of  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia,  and  extending  southwardly  so  as  to  include 
the  greater  part  of  the  two  Carolinas  and  the  whole  of  Georgia  and  Flor 
ida.  It  is  true  that  similar  works  are  found  outside  of  these  limits,  but 
for  my  present  purposes  it  will  not  be  necessary,  except  in  one  or  two 
instances,  to  travel  beyond  the  bounds  here  prescribed.  Throughout  the 
whole  of  this  region  these  remains  are  more  or  less  abundant,  though 
different  forms  of  mounds  and  earth-works  seem  to  prevail  in  different 
sections,  as,  for  instance,  the  animal  mounds  in  Wisconsin,  the  inclosures 
in  Ohio,  and  the  truncated  mounds  in  the  States  farther  to  the  south.  All 
kinds,  however,  are  represented  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  and  it  is  probably  safe 
to  say  that,  within  that  basin,  they  are  more  numerous,  of  larger  size,  and 
more  complicated  patterns  than  can  be  found  elsewhere  in  the  United 
States. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  they  may  be  roughly  divided  into  two  grand  divis 
ions — mounds  and  embankments — and  these  can  again  be  subdivided  into 
numerous  groups.  Beginning  with  the  embankments  or  inclosures,  we 
find  that  they  are  generally  of  earth — rarely  of  stone — and  that  they  are 
situated  on  the  level  river  terraces,  or  else  occupy  the  tops  of  hills  or  other 
naturally  strong  positions.  According  to  their  situation,  they  have  been 
divided  into  works  of  defense  and  sacred  inclosures,  or,  as  I  prefer  to  call 
them,  hill-forts  and  fortified  villages.  The  former  of  these  almost  always 
followed  the  outlines  of  the  hill,  and  are  hence  more  or  less  irregular  in 
shape.  In  some  of  them  the  whole  top  of  the  hill  is  inclosed  by  a  wall, 
whilst  in  others  only  the  more  exposed  points  are  so  defended.  The  forti 
fied  villages  are  usually  found  on  a  level  plain — one  of  the  river  benches 
or  terraces  being  generally  selected.  They  are  of  various  sizes  and  shapes, 
though  the  square  and  circle  predominate,  and  are  often  found  united  in 
a  seemingly  arbitrary  manner.  The  height  of  the  wall  around  the  inclos- 
ure,  measured  from  the  bottom  of  the  ditch  that  usually  accompanies  it, 
varies  from  a  few  feet  up  to  thirty.  In  many  instances  it  is  now,  and 
must  always  have  been,  too  insignificant  to  offer  any  serious  obstacle  to 
an  attacking  force;  and  this  has  given  rise  to  the  suggestion  that  these 
embankments  were  formerly  surmounted  by  stockades,  as  was  the  case 
with  the  villages  of  the  recent  Indians.  Without  stopping  now  to  inquire 
jnto  the  probability  of  this  explanation,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  there 


.     62  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt  as  to  its  truth  in  regard  to  some  of  them. 
Brackenridge  (4)  states  the  fact  positively,  and  At  water  tells  us  that  half 
way  up,  on  the  outside  of  the  inner  wall  that  surrounded  the  circle,  or,  as 
he  calls  it,  the  "round  fort,"  which  formed  a  part  of  the  large  and  compli 
cated  series  of  works  that  once  occupied  the  site  of  the  present  town  of 
Circleville,  Ohio,  "there  is  a  place  distinctly  to  be  seen  where  a  row  of 
pickets  once  stood,  and  where  it  was  placed  when  this  work  of  defense  was 
originally  erected. "(s)  In  point  of  size  these  works  varied  greatly.  Some 
of  the  smaller  circles — probably  the  ruins  of  mud  lodges  or  temples  similar 
to  those  described  as  having  existed  among  the  Southern  Indians,  (6)  and 
which  may  still  be  seen  among  some  of  the  tribes  of  the  Upper  Missouri(7) 
—are  not  more  than  fifty  feet  in  diameter,  whilst  the  groups,  or  series  of 
works  in  which  the  different  forms  are  united,  not  unfrequently  covered 
hundreds  of  acres,  or,  as  was  the  case  with  the  works  at  Newark,  Ohio, 
were  scattered  about  over  an  area  of  two  miles  square.  (8) 

The  situation  of  the  ditch  with  reference  to  the  wall  was  a  matter  in 
which  there  was  but  little,  if  any,  uniformity,  it  being  sometimes  on  one 
side  of  the  wall  and  sometimes  on  the  other.  At  one  time  this  feature  was 
thought  to  furnish  a  criterion  by  which  to  judge  the  character  of  the  work, 

(4.)  Views  of  Louisiana,  pp.  21  and  182-3 :  Pittsburg,  1814. 

(5.)  Archseologia  Americana,  vol.  I,  p.  145:  Worcester,  Mass.,  1820.  As  these  works  will  be  referred 
to  hereafter,  I  add  a  description  from  the  same  book,  pp.  141-2:  "There  are  two  forts  which  are  joined 
together,  one  being  an  exact  circle,  the  other  an  exact  square.  The  former  is  surrounded  by  two 
walls,  with  a  deep  ditch  between  them.  The  latter  is  encompassed  with  one  wall,  without  any  ditch. 
The  former  was  69  rods  in  diameter,  measuring  from  outside  to  outside  of  the  circular  outer  wall ;  the 
latter  is  exactly  55  rods  square  measuring  the  same  way.  The  walls  of  the  circular  fort  were  at  least  20 
feet  in  height,  measuring  from  the  bottom  of  the  ditch,  before  the  town  of  Circleville  was  built.  The 
inner  wall  was  of  clay,  taken  up  probably  in  the  northern  part  of  the  fort  where  was  a  low  place,  and  is 
still  considerably  lower  than  any  other  part  of  the  work.  The  outside  wall  was  taken  from  the  ditch 
Avhich  is  between  these  walls,  and  is  alluvial,  consisting  of  pebbles  worn  smooth  in  water,  and  sand,  to  a 
very -considerable  depth,  more  than  50  feet  at  least.  The  outside  of  the  walls  is  about  five  or  six  feet  in 
height  now ;  on  the  inside,  the  ditch  is,  at  present,  generally  not  more  than  fifteen  feet.  They  are  disap 
pearing  before  us  daily,  and  will  soon  be  gone.  The  walls  of  the  square  fort  are,  at  this  time,  where  left 
standing,  about  10  feet  in  height.  There  are  eight  gateways  or  openings  leading  into  the  square  fort,  and 
only  one  into  the  circular  fort.  Before  each  of  these  openings  was  a  mound  of  earth  perhaps  four  feet 
high,  40  feet  perhaps  in  diameter  at  the  base,  and  20  or  upwards  at  the  summit.  These  mounds  for  two 
rods  or  more  are  exactly  in  front  of  the  gateways,  and  were  intended  for  the  defense  of  these  openings." 

(6.)  Joutel,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  I,  p.  148.  Among  the  Alachua  (Floridian)  Indians,  we  are 
told  by  Bartram  that  "their  dwellings  stand  near  the  middle  of  a  square  yard,  encompassed  by  a  low 
bank,  formed  with  the  earth  taken  out  of  the  yard,  which  is  always  carefully  swept:"  Travels  through 
Florida,  p.  192. 

(7.)  Catlin,  North  American  Indians,  vol.  I,  p.  81 :  London,  1848.  In  the  Peabody  Museum  of  Ameri 
can  Archaeology  and  Ethnology  at  Cambridge,  Mass.,  there  is  a  model  of  one  of  these  mud  lodges,  such 
as  is  now  in  use  among  the  Omahas. 

(8.)  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  p.  67. 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  63 

and  Mr.  Squier  quotes  approvingly  English  authorities  to  the  effect  "that 
the  circumstance  of  the  ditch  being  within  the  vallum  is  a  distinguishing 
mark  between  religious  and  military  works."(9)  This  position,  however, 
does  not  hold  good  with  regard  to  earth-works  in  the  United  States,  since 
it  is  matter  of  record  that  in  some  of  the  stockaded  forts  of  the  recent 
Indians  the  ditch  was  on  the  inside  of  the  wall,  whilst  in  others  there  was 
a  ditch  on  each  side.(10)  Indeed,  when  we  consider  the  nature  of  the  posi 
tion  to  be  defended,  and  bear  in  mind  the  effective  use  of  rifle  pits  in 
modern  warfare,  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  the  inside  is  not,  under 
certain  conditions,  the  proper  place  for  it. 

In  the  material  of  which  they  were  made  these  embankments  varied  but 
little.  As  has  been  well  said  by  H.  H.  Bancroft,(ZI)  "they  are  of  earth, 
stones,  or  a  mixture  of  the  two,  in  their  natural  condition,  thrown  up  from 
the  material  which  is  nearest  at  hand.  There  is  no  instance  of  walls  built 
of  stone  that  has  been  hewn  or  otherwise  artificially  prepared,  of  the  use 
of  mortar,  of  even  rough  stones  laid  with  regularity,  of  adobes  or  earth 
otherwise  prepared,  or  of  material  brought  from  any  great  distance.  The 
material  was  taken  from  a  ditch  that  often  accompanies  the  embankment, 
from  excavations  or  pits  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  or  is  scraped  up  from 
the  surface  of  the  surrounding  soil.  There  is  nothing  in  the  present  ap 
pearance  of  these  works  to  indicate  any  difference  in  their  original  form 
from  that  naturally  given  to  earth-works  thrown  up  from  a  ditch,  with  sides 
as  nearly  perpendicular  as  the  nature  of  the  material  will  permit.  Of 
course  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  builders  to  give  a  symmetrical 
superficial  contour  to  the  works  would  have  been  long  since  obliterated  by 
the  action  of  the  elements;  but  nothing  now  remains  to  show  that  they 
attached  any  importance  whatever  to  either  material  or  contour.  Stone 
embankments  are  rarely  found,  and  only  in  localities  where  the  abundance 
of  that  material  would  naturally  suggest  its  use.  In  a  few  instances  clay 
has  been  obtained  at  a  little  distance,  or  dug  from  beneath  the  surface." 

(9.)  Anc.  Mon.  Miss.  Valley,  note  to  p.  47. 

(10.)  Charlevoix,  Histoire  de  la  Nouvelle  France,  vol.  IV,  p.  156:  Paris,  1744.  Schoolcraft,  Travels  in 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  p.  129.  Catlin,  North  American  Indians,  vol.  I,  p.  81:  London,  1848.  In  the  town 
of  Medford,  Mass.,  near  Mystic  pond,  there  was  a  "Fort  built  by  their  deceased  King,  in  manner  thus: 
There  were  pools  some  thirtie  or  fortie  foote  long,  stucke  in  the  ground  as  thicke  as  they  could  be  set  one 
by  another,  and  with  these  they  enclosed  a  ring  some  forty  or  fifty  foote  over.  A  trench  breast  high  was 
digged  on  each  side;  one  way  there  was  to  goe  into  it  with  a  bridge;  in  the  midst  of  this  Pallizado  stood 
the  frame  of  a  house  wherein  being  dead  he  lay  buried.  A  myle  from  hence  we  came  to  such  another," 
£c.:  Mourt's  Relation,  p.  126:  Boston,  1865. 

(11.)  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States,  vol.  IV,  p.  753. 


64  THE    MOUNDS    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

Turning  now  to  our  second  grand  division — the  mounds — we  find  them 
composed  of  earth  and  stone,  and  varying  in  location,  size,  shape,  and 
contents.  Divided  according  to  their  form,  they  may  be  classed  as — 

1st.  "Temple"  or  truncated  mounds,  which,  as  their  name  indicates,  are 
truncated  cones,  usually  with  graded  ways  to  their  tops,  and  in  some 
instances  with  terraced  sides.  Their  bases  are  of  different  forms,  being 
indifferently  either  round,  oval,  square,  or  oblong;  but  whatever  may  have 
been  their  differences  in  these  respects,  they  were  all  alike  in  having  fiat  or 
level  tops,  which  were  no  doubt  used  as  sites  for  their  rude  temples,  or  the 
cabins  of  their  chiefs.  In  size,  they  varied  from  a  height  of  five  feet  to 
ninety,  and  from  a  base  of  forty  feet  in  diameter  to  one  covering  an  area 
of  twelve  acres.  (I2)  Like  the  embankments,  they  are  simply  heaps  of 
earth,  some  of  them,  it  is  true,  of  immense  size,  but  all  of  them  thrown 
up  without  much  "care  in  the  choice  of  material,  and  none  at  all  in  the 
order  of  deposit." 

2d.  The  next  class  is  composed  of  the  "animal  mounds,"  or  mounds  in 
which  the  ground  plan  is  more  or  less  irregular,  and  is  thought  to  resemble 
animals,  birds,  and  even  human  beings,'  though  it  is  admitted  that  this 
resemblance  is  often  imaginary,  and  that  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  build 
ers  of  these  works  intended  to  copy  any  such  forms.  Indeed,  Lapham,  (I3) 
to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  the  most  satisfactory  account  of  these  mounds 
that  we  possess,  finds  it  necessary,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  to  caution 
his  readers  against  blindly  accepting  these  resemblances,  and  frankly  says 
that  in  some  cases  appellations,  like  that  of  "Lizard  Mound,"  were  given 
for  the  sake  of  convenience,  and  without  pretending  that  they  were  actually 
intended  to  represent  that  animal.  (I4)  According  to  the  same  author,  as 
summarized  by  Bancroft,  these  mounds  vary  in  height  from  one  to  six 
feet,  and  their  dimensions  on  the  ground  are  quite  large.  Thus  "rude 
effigies  of  human  form  are  in  some  instances  over  one  hundred  feet  long; 
quadrupeds  have  bodies  and  tails  each  from  fifty  to  two  hundred  feet  long; 
birds  have  wings  of  a  hundred  feet;  lizard  mounds  are  two  and  even  four 
hundred  feet  in  length;  straight  and  curved  lines  of  embankments  reach 
over  a  thousand  feet,  and  serpents  are  equally  extensive."  Mounds  of  this 

(12.)  See  the  account  of  the  Cahokia  Mound  in  12th  Annual  Report  of  the  Peabody  Museum. 

(13.)  Antiquities  of  Wisconsin  in  vol.  VII  of  the  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge,  pp.  14,  24, 
130,  £c.  See  also,  Anc.  Mon.  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  p.  130,  in  which  Mr.  Squier  speaks  of  a  mound 
that  "may  have  been  intended  to  represent  a  bird,  a  bow  and  arrow,  or  the  human  figure." 

(14.)  1.  c.,  note  to  p.  9. 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  65 

class  are  common  in  Wisconsin,  and  are  also  found  in  Ohio  and  Georgia 
They  are  not  burial  mounds,  though  they  are  not  unfrequently  grouped 
with  conical  mounds  that  inclose  human  remains,  as  they  are,  also,  with 
embankments  and  inclosures  —  the  grouping  being  always  without  any 
apparent  order.  They  are  usually  constructed  of  earth,  stones  being  but 
rarely  used,  except  perhaps  in  Georgia,  where  the  two  bird-shaped  mounds 
described  by  Col.  C.  C.  Jones  are  built  entirely  of  that  material. (1S) 

3d.  The  third  and  last  class  of  mounds  consists  of  the  simple  conical 
tumuli  that  are  scattered  about  over  this  whole  area,  and  are  far  more 
numerous  than  all  the  others  combined.  So  far  as  outward  appearance  is 
concerned,  they  are  generally  round  or  oval,  though  other  forms  are  not 
infrequent.  They  vary  in  height  from  a  few  inches  to  seventy  feet,(l6)  and 
in  diameter  from  three  or  four  feet  to  three  hunxlred.  It  is  probable,  how 
ever,  that  a  height  of  from  three  to  thirty  feet,  and  a  diameter  ranging  at 
the  base  from  fifteen  to  fifty  feet,  would  include  a  large  proportion  of 
them.  Although  so  alike  in  form,  these  mounds  differ  widely  in  location, 
and,  as  we  shall  see  later  on,  in  their  contents.  They  are  found  on  the 
tops  of  the  highest  hills  and  in  the  lowest  river  valleys ;  they  stand  alone  or 
in  groups,  or  in  connection  with  hill-forts  or  fortified  villages,  of  which  they 
evidently  formed  component  parts.  In  the  material  of  which  they  are 
built,  as  well  as  in  the  manner  of  their  construction,  they  do  not  differ 
from  the  embankments  and  from  other  mounds.  A  large  majority  of  them 
are  simply  heaps  of  earth,  though  stone  mounds  or  cairns  are  quite  com 
mon,  and  in  Florida  they  are  sometimes  composed  almost  entirely  of  shells. 
As  a  rule,  they  are  homogeneous  in  structure,  though  occasionally  in  the 
Ohio  Valley,  and  especially  along  the  Scioto  river,  there  are  a  few  that 
were  regularly  and  intentionally  stratified. 

This  is  believed  to  be  a  fair  statement  of  all  that  is  known  of  the  mounds, 
considered  simply  as  mounds,  and  without  any  regard  to  their  contents,  or 
to  what  is  known  of  them  historically.  It  is  taken  almost  literally  from 
Bancroft,  (I?)  whom  I  have  chosen  to  follow  for  the  reason  that  his  summary 
of  the  results  of  the  explorations  of  Squier,  Lapham,  and  others,  is  just 
and  comprehensive,  and  because,  in  a  matter  of  this  importance,  it  seemed 

(15.)  Smithsonian  Report  for  1877,  p.  278. 
(16.)  Anc.  Mon.  Miss.  Valley,  pp.  5  and  168. 
(17.)  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States,  vol.  IV,  chap.  XIII. 
MEM. — VOL.  ii — 5. 


66  THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

to  me  desirable  to  distrust  my  own  judgment,  and  to  accept  the  statement 
of  one  who  cannot  be  accused  of  sharing  in  the  conclusions  to  which  I  have 
been  most  unexpectedly  driven. 

As  a  result  of  this  rapid  glance  at  the  story  of  these  remains,  when  told 
by  themselves,  it  will  be  seen  that,  although  they  differ  widely  in  form, 
size,  and  the  evident  use  for  which  they  were  intended,  yet  they  are,  pri 
marily,  nothing  but  heaps  of  earth,  stones,  or  a  mixture  of  the  two,  thrown 
up  into  the  form  of  mounds  and  embankments.  A  child  at  play  on  a  pile 
of  sand  performs  on  a  small  scale,  and  for  his  amusement,  the  very  same 
kind  of  labor  as  that  involved  in  their  erection;  and  the  beaver  and  the 
white  ant,  in  building  their  dams  and  nests,  show  a  degree  of  development 
— a  faculty  ,of  adapting  means  to  an  end — but  little,  if  any,  inferior  to 
that  displayed  by  the  Mound-builder,  when  judged  by  the  same  standard. 
Indeed,  we  are  told  that  the  beaver  dams  and  washes  of  Wisconsin  some 
times  bear  a  very  close  resemblance  to  the  so-called  serpent  mounds,  and  to 
the  excavations  made  by  the  Indians  in  search  of  lead  and  other  ores;('8) 
whilst,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  ant  hills  of  Africa,  in  point  of  relative 
size,(19)  and  in  the  architectural  knowledge  and  engineering  skill  displayed 
in  their  construction,  are  quite  equal  to  any  earth-work  in  the  Ohio  Valley. 
In  saying  this,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  there  is  any  intention  of 
disparaging  the  works  of  the  Mound-builders.  Unquestionably  some  of 
them  are  of  great  size,  and  exhibit  an  immense  amount  of  patient  toil  and 
perseverance;  but  beyond  this  they  tell  us  little  or  nothing.  Nowhere, 
either  in  laying  them  out,  or  in  the  manner  in  which  the  dead  were  some 
times  buried  in  them,  can  be  found  any  such  adherence  to  the  principle  of 
orientation  as  would  authorize  the  inference  that  the  people  who  built  and 
buried  in  them  had  advanced  beyond  the  merest  rudiments  of  astro 
nomical  knowledge;  and  as  for  the  mathematical  skill  displayed  in  the 
construction  of  their  squares  and  circles,  any  one  who  has  ever  aided  in 
fencing  a  western  farm  knows  that  it  is  a  comparatively  simple  matter  to 
"run"  a  straight  line,  especially  if  it  be  as  broad  as  most  of  these  embank 
ments;  and  that,  consequently,  squares  as  large  and  with  angles  as  "per 
fect"  as  any  of  those  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  can  be  constructed  with  the  aid 
of  three  straight  sticks  and  a  moderately  good  eye.  The  circles  might 

(18.)  Antiquities  of  Wisconsin,  I.  c.,  note  to  p.  11. 

(19.)  Some  of  the  hills  of  the  so-called  white  ants  of  Africa  are  25  feet  high,  and  honeycombed  with 
galleries, 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  67 

perhaps  give  a  little  more  trouble;  but  even  they  are  not  beyond  the 
compass  of  a  boy  with  a  string.  Mr.  Squier  himself  admits  that  it  is 
possible  to  construct  them  of  considerable  size  without  the  aid  of  instru 
ments,  though  one  over  a  mile  in  circumference  would,  he  thinks,  oifer 
serious  obstacles. (20)  In  a  word,  the  labor  involved  in  the  erection  of  these 
works  was  purely  manual,  and  perfectly  homogeneous.  It  did  not  even 
necessarily  imply  the  use  of  mechanical  aids  of  any  kind,  though  it  is 
probable  that  the  rude  stone  hoe  or  spade  and  a  basket — one  to  loosen  the 
earth,  and  the  other  to  transport  it— were  both  employed ;  and  these,  be  it 
remembered,  were  within  reach  of  every  Indian  family  east  of  the  Missis 
sippi  and  south  of  the  great  lakes. 

The  fact,  then,  as  to  the  character  of  this  labor  being  as  stated,  it  would 
seem  to  follow  that  a  people  who  could  have  erected  one  of  these  works,  be 
it  a  mound  or  an  embankment,  might  have  built  any  and  all  of  them ;  and 
of  course  if  it  can  be  shown  that  the  red  Indian  has,  within  the  historic 
epoch,  thrown  up  mounds  five  or  ten  feet  high,  and  of  proportionate  size, 
there  can  be  no  reason  why,  given  time,  of  which  he  had  an  unlimited  sup 
ply,  or  an  increased  number  of  workmen,  he  could  not  have  made  them 
ten  times  as  large  had  he  been  so  inclined.  To  deny  this  involves  the 
necessity  of  showing  that  there  existed,  in  mound-building,  some  point 
beyond  which  the  efforts  of  the  Indian  could  not  go — some  limit  to  the 
number  of  baskets  full  of  earth  he  might  bring — and  this  will  scarcely  be 
undertaken  by  the  hardiest  advocate  of  the  theory  of  the  two  civilizations. 
Indeed,  it  is  only  necessary  to  put  the  matter  in  this  broad  light,  to  ask 
where  it  is  proposed  to  run  this  line  of  demarkation,  and  how  it  was  found, 
in  order  to  show  the  absurdity  of  any  attempt  to  set  up  a  standard  that 
will  enable  us  to  say,  definitively,  whether  any  given  earth-work  was  built 
by  the  recent  Indians  or  by  the  so-called  Mound-builders. 

With  this  fact  clearly  understood,  we  are  now  ready  to  take  up  the 
evidence  that  points  to  the  red  Indian  of  modern  times  as  the  builder  of 
these  works;  and  by  way  of  beginning,  let  us  look  into  the  truth  of  the 
oft-repeated  statement  that  he  had  no  tradition  as  to  their  origin,  and  the 
purposes  for  which  they  were  erected.  So  far  as  my  immediate  argument 
is  concerned,  this  is,  to  some  extent,  a  work  of  supererogation.  Tradition 

(20.)  Anc.  Mon.,  p.  61.  Bearing  upon  this  point  is  the  statement  of  Miss  A.  C.  Fletcher,  that  the 
Ogahilla  Sioux,  when  marking  out  the  ground  for  the  Sun  dance,  raise  up  a  pole  in  the  center,  and  then, 
with  a  raw-hide  cord  as  a  radius,  draw  a  circle  of  the  required  size,  say  from  two  to  three  hundred  feet 
in  diameter, 


68  THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

is,  at  best,  but  an  unsafe  guide,  and  even  if  it  were  not,  the  fact  that  the 
Indians  could  not  give  any  account  of  these  structures  would  carry  but 
little,  if  any,  weight,  for  the  reason  that  it  is  negative  evidence,  pure  and 
shnple;  and  as  such  must  give  way  to  the  well-authenticated  instances  of 
mound-building  among  the  Natchez  and  other  historic  tribes.  Upon  this 
point  there  can  be  no  difference  of  opinion,  and  though  it  clearly  shows  the 
worthlessness  of  tradition  as  the  basis  for  an  argument  in  the  present  dis 
cussion,  yet  the  statement  as  to  the  absence  of  all  accounts  of  the  origin 
of  these  works  is  so  often  repeated,  and  with  such  seeming  confidence,  that 
the  investigation  would  be  incomplete  without  some  inquiry  into  its  truth. 
Especially  is  this  so  in  view  of  the  fact  that,  like  all  wholesale  generaliza 
tions,  it  has  a  certain  foundation  in  truth,  though  this  is  believed  to  be 
entirely  too  slight  to  justify  us  in  accepting  the  statement  in  the  shape  in 
which  it  has  come  down  to  us.  That  certain  Indians — the  number  is 
immaterial — were  without  any  tradition  upon  the  subject  of  these  mounds 
is  extremely  probable;  and  if  the  early  writers  had  confined  themselves 
to  a  statement  of  this  fact,  there  would  have  been  no  question  as  to  its 
acceptance.  But  when,  generalizing  (as  was  too  often  their  wont)  from  the 
few  instances  that  came  under  their  observation,  they  tell  us  that  "the 
Indians,"  or  that  "certain  tribes"  were  equally  ignorant,  then  it  is  time  to 
call  a  halt,  and  inquire  into  the  validity  of  the  evidence  upon  which  the 
statement  rests.  To  do  this  thoroughly  involves  no  little  labor.  Trust 
worthy  authorities  must  be  examined — the  more  the  better — and  if  they 
fail  to  bear  out  the  general  conclusion,  as  will  almost  always  be  found  to 
be  the  case,  there  is  no  alternative  but  to  so  modify  this  conclusion  as  to 
bring  it  in  accord  with  the  newly-discovered  evidence.  As  an  instance  of 
the  good  results  that  sometimes  follow  this  method  of  interpreting  the  old 
chroniclers,  take  the  assertion  of  the  younger  Bartram  that  "  the  Cherokees 
are  as  ignorant  as  we  are,  by  what  people  or  for  what  purpose  these  artifi 
cial  hills  were  raised.  "(2I)  He  is  speaking  of  the  mound  upon  which  stood 
the  council  house  in  their  town  of  Cowe,(22)  and  it  is,  of  course,  very  prob 
able  that  the  Indians  of  whom  he  made  the  inquiry  did  not  know  who 

(21.)  Bartram's  Travels,  p.  367:  Philadelphia,  1791.  He  adds:  "But  they  have  a  tradition  common 
with  the  other  nations  of  Indians,  that  they  found  them  in  much  the  same  condition  as  they  now  appear, 
when  their  forefathers  arrived  from  the  West  and  possessed  themselves  of  the  country  after  vanquishing 
the  nations  of  red  men  who  then  inhabited  it,  who  themselves  found  these  mounts  when  they  took  pos 
session  of  the  country,  the  former  possessors  delivering  the  same  story  concerning  them." 

(22.)  This  distinction  must  be  kept  in  mind,  as  I.  c.,  p.  348,  he  speaks  of  "vast  heaps  of  stoiies"  that 
were  "Indian  graves  undoubtedly." 


THE    MOUNDS    OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  69 

built  this  particular  mound;  at  least  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  told 
him  so,  and  that  he  believed  them.  Now,  Bartram's  visit  to  the  Cherokees 
was  a  hurried  one;  he  saw  but  few  of  their  towns,  and  could  not  possibly 
have  conversed  with  but  a  small  portion  of  their  people,  and  yet  his  state 
ment  is  couched  in  the  broadest  terms  possible,  and  includes  all  the  mem 
bers  of  the  tribe  of  every  age,  size,  sex,  and  condition.  Obviously,  his 
assertion  is  not  warranted  by  the  facts,  nor  is  it  borne  out  by  the  testimony 
of  concurrent  writers.  So  far  from  being  without  any  tradition  on  this  sub 
ject,  this  people  can  be  shown  to  have  had  several,  or,  at  all  events,  they 
so  reported.  Thus,  about  the  year  1782,  Oconostoto,  who  had  been  for 
sixty  years  one  of  their  chiefs,  being  asked  by  Gov.  Sevier,(23)  of  Ten 
nessee,  who  built  the  earth- works  in  their  country,  and  particularly  "the 
remarkable  fortification,"  as  it  is  called,  on  the  Hiawassee  river,  answered 
that  "it  was  handed  down  by  their  forefathers,  that  these  works  were  made 
by  the  white  people  who  had  formerly  inhabited  the  country."  Gen'l  Geo. 
Rogers  Clark,  (24)  who  probably  knew  as  much  of  Indian  character  as  any 
one  who  has  ever  written  on  the  subject,  says  positively  that  there  was  a 
tradition  among  the  Cherokees  to  the  effect  that  the  works  in  their  country 
were  built  by  their  ancestors ;  and  this  statement  is  borne  out  by  the  chron 
iclers  of  De  Soto's  expedition, (25)  as  well  as  by  the  testimony  of  Adair,(26) 
who  seems  to  have  had  no  doubt  by  whom  these  mounds  were  built,  or  for 

(23.)  See  letter  of  Gov.  Sevier  in  Stoddard's  Sketches  of  Louisiana,  p.  483:  Philadelphia,  1812.  Being 
questioned  as  to  who  these  white  people  were,  the  old  chief  replied:  "That  he  had  heard  his  grandfather 
and  other  old  people  say  that  they  were  a  people  called  the  Welsh,"  &c.,  &c.  For  a  summary  of  what 
has  been  written  about  a  Welsh  Nation  in  America,  consult  chapter  XVII  of  the  above  work,  and  also 
Priest's  American  Antiquities,  pp.  229  et  seq. :  Albany,  1838,  and  Burder's  Welch  Colony,  a  pamphlet  pub 
lished  in  London  in  1797. 

(24.)  "I  think  the  world  is  to  blame  to  express  such  great  anxiety  to  know  who  it  was  that  built  those 
numerous  and  formidable  works,  and  what  hath  become  of  that  people.  They  will  find  them  in  the 
Kaskaskias,  Peorias,  Kahokias  (now  extinct),  Piankeshaws,  Chickasaws,  Cherokees,  and  such  old 
nations,  who  say  they  grew  out  of  the  ground  where  they  now  live,  and  that  they  were  formerly  as 
numerous  as  the  trees  in  the  woods;  but  affronting  the  Great  Spirit,  he  made  war  among  the  nations, 
and  they  destroyed  each  other.  This  is  their  tradition,  and  I  can  see  no  good  reason  why  it  should  not 
be  received  as  good  history — at  least  as  good  as  a  great  part  of  ours:"  MSS.  of  Gen'l  Geo.  K.  Clark,  in  vol. 
IV,  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States,  p.  135. 

(25.)  In  the  10th  Annual  Report  of  the  Peabody  Museum  at  Cambridge,  pp.  75  et  seq.,  I  have  given 
some  of  the  reasons  for  believing  that  the  Cherokees  built  mounds  and  earth-works. 

(26.)  "We  frequently  meet  with  great  mounds  of  earth,  either  of  a  circular  or  oblong  form,  having  a 
strong  breastwork  at  a  distance  around  them,  made  of  the  clay  which  had  been  dug  up  in  forming  the 
ditch  on  the  inner  side  of  the  inclosed  ground,  and  these  were  their  forts  of  security  against  an  enemy. 
Three  or  four  of  them  are,  in  some  places,  raised  so  near  to  each  other  as  evidently  for  the  garrison  .to 
take  any  enemy  that  passed  between  them.  They  were  mostly  built  in  low  lands;  and  some  are  over 
spread  with  large  trees,  beyond  the  reach  of  Indian  tradition:"  History  of  the  American  Indians,  p.  377: 
London,  1775. 


70  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

what  purpose,  though  he  admits  that  some  of  them  were  beyond  the  reach 
of  tradition. 

Here,  then,  in  this  one  tribe,  we  have  several  accounts  of  these  works. 
They  cannot  all  be  true,  and  it  is  possible  that  neither  one  of  them  may  be; 
and  yet  either  one  of  them  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  statement  that  the 
Indians  had  no  tradition  as  to  the  origin  of  these  structures,  or  the  purpose 
for  which  they  were  built.  Nor  must  it  be  supposed  that  the  Cherokees 
were  alone  in  this  respect;  neither  were  these  stories  confined  to  any  one 
stock  or  family  of  tribes.  They  are  found  on  both  sides  of  the  Ohio,  and 
were  as  current  (and  for  that  matter  as  varied  and  often  quite  as  contra 
dictory)  among  nations  of  the  Huron  and  Algonquin  families  as  they  were 
among  the  Cherokees.  In  fact,  it  is  believed  to  be  the  exception  to  find 
a  single  prominent  tribe  living  within  the  region  of  the  mounds  in  which 
some  tradition  on  the  subject  of  their  origin  was  not  more  or  less  common. 
Whether  these  traditions  were  true  or  false,  or  whether  the  event  that  was 
purported  to  be  handed  down  was  fact  or  fable,  are  points  which  it  is  not 
necessary  to  discuss.  All  that  I  am  called  upon  to  show  is,  that  the 
Indians  had  traditions,  no  matter  what  their  character,  upon  this  subject; 
and  in  doing  this,  I  shall  limit  myself  to  a  representative  tribe  from  each 
family,  and  by  way  of  making  the  tradition  as  definite  as  possible,  will  pick 
out  typical  works  or  groups,  situated  in  different  portions  of  the  country, 
so  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  particular  tribe,  or  the  precise  kind 
of  earth-work  that  is  meant. 

First  of  all,  let  us  take  up  the  mounds  and  inclosures  of  Western  New 
York,  and  see  what  the  Iroquois  had  to  say  as  to  their  origin.  Accord 
ing  to  one  account,  the  country  "about  the  lakes  was  thickly  inhabited 
by  a  race  of  civil,  enterprising,  and  industrious  people,  who  were  totally 
destroyed,  and  whose  improvements  were  taken  possession  of  by  the  Sen- 
ecas."(27)  The  Rev.  Mr.  Kirkland,  while  on  a  missionary  tour  to  this 
tribe,  A.  D.  1788,  visited  several  of  these  "old  forts,"  one  of  which,  situ 
ated  in  Genesee  county,  near  Batavia  (Squier),  and  known  to  the  Indians 
as  the  "double-fortified  town,  or  a  town  with  a  fort  at  each  end,"  is  thus 
described:  The  first  of  these  forts  "contained  about  four  acres  of  ground. 
The  other,  distant  from  this  about  two  miles,  and  situated  at  the  other 
extremity  of  the  ancient  town,  inclosed  twice  that  quantity  of  ground.  The 
ditch  around  the  former  was  about  five  or  six  feet  deep.  A  small  stream 

(27.)  Yates  and  Moulton,  History  of  New  York,  vol.  I,  p.  40:  New  York,  1824. 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   TALLEY.  71 

of  water  and  a  high  bank  circumscribed  nearly  one  third  of  the  inclosed 
ground.  There  were  the  traces  of  six  gates  or  avenues  round  the  ditch, 
and  near  the  center  a  way  was  dug  to  the  water.  A  considerable 

number  of  large  thrifty  oaks  had  grown  up  within  the  inclosed  ground, 
both  in  and  upon  the  ditch;  some  of  them  appear  to  be  at  least  two  hun 
dred  years  old  or  more.  *  *  *  Near  the  northern  fortification,  which 
was  situated  on  high  ground,  he  found  the  remains  of  a  funeral  pile. 
The  earth  was  raised  about  six  feet  above  the  common  surface,  and  betwixt 
twenty  and  thirty  feet  diameter.  The  bones  appeared  on  the  whole  sur 
face  of  the  raised  earth,  and  stuck  out  in  many  places  on  the  sides. "(28) 
According  to  the  same  author,  Indian  tradition  says  "these  works  were 
raised,  and  this  battle  was  fought  betwixt  the  Senecas  and  Western  In 
dians.  *  *  *  In  this  great  battle  the  Senacas  affirmed  that  their 
ancestors  won  the  victory.  Some  say  their  ancestors  had  told  them  there 
were  eight  hundred  of  their  enemies  slain;  others  include  the  killed  on 
both  sides  in  that  number.  Be  this  as  it  may,  all  their  historians  agree 
that  the  battle  was  fought  where  this  heap  of  slain  are  buried,  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Europeans,  some  say  three,  some  four,  others  five  lives  or 
ages,  reckoning  a  life  or  age  one  hundred  winters  or  colds. "(29)  Another 
tradition  represents  that  these  works  were  erected  by  the  ancestors  of  the 
Iroquois  in  their  wars  with  other  tribes(3°)  and  with  the  French.(31) 

(28.)  MSS.  of  Rev.  Mr.  Kirkland,  in  Moulton's  New  York,  vol.  I,  p.  16. 

(29.)  MSS.  of  Rev.  Mr.  Kirkland,  1.  c.,  p.  39.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  account  leaves  it  uncertain 
whether  these  works  were  erected  by  the  Senecas  or  the  Western  Indians.  So  far  as  my  purpose  is  con 
cerned,  it  is  immaterial  which  of  these  tribes  built  them.  The  following  extract  from  Gov.  DeWitt 
Clinton  will,  however,  clear  up  the  difficulty:  "Some  of  the  Senecas  told  Mr.  Kirkland,  the  missionary, 
that  those  in  their  territory  were  raised  by  their  ancestors  in  their  wars  with  the  Western  Indians:"  Coll. 
N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  II,  p.  92.  Compare  Cusick's  History  of  the  Iroquois,  part  II,  published  in  School- 
craft's  Indian  Tribes,  vol.  V,  pp.  632  et  seq. 

(30.)  Notes  on  the  Iroquois  p.  442. 

(31.)  Farmers  Brother  told  Dr.  King  that  the  mounds  were  thrown  up  against  the  incursions  of  the 
French.  This  was  about  1810,  at  which  time  he  was  94  years  old :  Drake's  Indians  of  North  America, 
fifteenth  edition,  p.  604.  There  is  another  tradition  given  by  Gov.  DeWitt  Clinton  in  the  Collections  of 
the  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  II,  p.  92,  to  the  effect  that  "  these  works  were  thrown  up  by  an  army  of  Span 
iards,"  &c.  I  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  give  it  in  the  text,  as  it  is  probable  that  the  tradition  is  as  false 
as  the  event  to  which  it  relates  is  improbable.  However,  it  may  be  well  to  add  that  Brant,  the  famous 
Mohawk  Chief,  in  vol.  II,  p.  484  of  his  life,  speaks  of  a  tradition  that  "prevailed  among  the  different 
nations  of  Indians  throughout  that  whole  extensive  range  of  country,  and  had  been  handed  down  time 
immemorial,  that  in  an  age  long  gone  by  there  came  white  men  from  a  foreign  country,  and,  by  consent 
of  the  Indians,  established  trading-houses  and  settlements  where  these  tumuli  are  found.  A  friendly 
intercourse  was  continued  for  several  years;  many  of  the  white  men  brought  their  wives,  and  had  chil 
dren  born  to  them.  *  *  *  These  circumstances  at  length  gave  rise  to  jealousies,"  and  the  colony  was 
ultimately  destroyed.  Brant  expressed  no  opinion  as  to  the  truth  of  the  tale,  but  added:  "that  from  the 
vessels  and  tools  which  had  been  dug  up  in  those  mounds,  or  found  in  their  vicinity,  it  was  evident  that 
the  people  who  had  used  them  were  French." 


2  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

Assuming  that  these  two  traditions  refer  to  different  periods  in  the  national 
life  of  the  Six  Nations,  they  do  not  conflict.  In  fact,  they  fit  in  together 
Very  closely,  and  as  Mr.  Squier  has  shown  that  these  remains  are  but  the 
abandoned  village  sites  of  the  recent  Indians, (32)  they  may  be  said  to  be 
sustained  by  the  traditions  of  the  Iroquois  as  to  their  expulsion  from  the 
region  near  Montreal,  and  their  seizure  and  occupation  of  Central  and 
Western  New  York.(33) 

Proceeding  towards  the  southwest,  we  come  next  to  the  Ohio  system  of 
works,  and  here,  again,  we  have  several  traditions  as  to  their  origin.  One 
of  these,  handed  down  among  the  Lenni  Lenape — an  Algonquin  tribe — is 
to  the  effect  that  when  they  had  reached  the  Mississippi  in  their  migration 
eastward,  they  found  the  country  east  of  that  river  inhabited  by  a  powerful 
nation,  called  the  Allegewi,  who  had  many  large  towns  built  on  the  great 
rivers  flowing  through  their  land.  At  first  they  gave  the  Lenni  Lenape  or 
Delawares,  as  we  call  them,  leave  to  pass  through  their  country,  and  seek 
a  settlement  farther  to  the  east;  but  for  some  reason  they  attacked  them 
whilst  crossing  the  river,  and  inflicted  great  loss  upon  them.  The  Lenni 
Lenape  then  formed  an  alliance  with  the  Mengwe  or  Iroquois,  who  were 

X, 

also  on  their  way  to  the  east  in  search  of  a  home,  and  together  they  made 
war  upon  the  Allegewi,  stormed  their  towns  and  fortifications,  and  finally 
expelled  them  from  the  country.  Heck  welder,  (34)  to  whom  we  are  indebted 
for  the  story,  says  that  he  had  seen  many  of  their  fortifications,  one  of 
which,  situated  on  the  Huron  river,  east  of  the  Sandusky,  about  six  or 
eight  miles  from  Lake  Erie,  he  describes  as  consisting  of  "walls  or  banks 
of  earth  regularly  thrown  up,  with  a  deep  ditch  on  the  outside.  *  *  * 
Outside  of  the  gateway  were  a  number  of  large  flat  mounds,  in  which,  the 
Indian  pilot  said,  were  buried  hundreds  of  the  slain  Allegewi."  In  another 
account  (35)  we  are  told  that  it  was  a  tradition  of  the  Kaskaskias,  Pianke- 
shaws,  and  other  tribes,  that  these  "fortified  towns,"  "entrenched  encamp- 

(32.)  Aboriginal  Monuments  of  New  York,  in  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge,  vol.  II,  chap. 
VI. 

(33.)  Morgan,  League  of  the  Iroquois,  p.  5.  Bartram  (John)  Observations,  &c.,  p.  23:  London,  1751. 
Colden,  Five  Nations,  p.  23.  DeWitt  Clinton,  I.  c.,  p.  92.  Eelation  en  1 '  annee  1660,  p.  6. 

(34.)  Historical  account  of  the  Indian  Nations,  pp.  29  et  seq.:  Philadelphia,  1819.  See  also  that  curious 
mixture  of  fact  and  fable,  Cusick's  History  of  the  Six  Nations.  John  Norton,  a  Mohawk  Chief  (in  vol. 
II  of  Life  of  Joseph  Brant,  note  on  p.  486:  Albany,  1865),  says:  "There  was  a  tradition  in  his  tribe  that 
they  were  constructed  by  a  people  who,  in  ancient  times,  occupied  a  great  extent  of  country,  but  who 
had  been  extirpated ;  that  there  had  been  long  and  bloody  wars  between  this  people  and  the  Five  Nations, 
in  which  the  latter  had  been  finally  victorious." 

(35.)  MSS.  of  Gen'l  Geo.  "Rogers  Clark  in  vol.  IV  of  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes,  pp.  134  and  135.  See 
also  Notes  on  the  Iroquois,  p.  162,  and  Brackenridge,  Views  of  Louisiana,  p.  185:  Pittsburgh,  1814. 


THE   MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  73 

ments,"  or  "garrisoned  forts,  many  of  them  with  towers  of  earth  of  con 
siderable  height  to  defend  the  walls  with  arrows  and  other  missile  weapons, 
*  *  *  were  the  works  of  their  forefathers,"  who  were  as  numerous  as 
the  trees  in  the  wood;  but  that,  having  affronted  the  Great  Spirit,  he 
made  them  kill  one  another. 

Speaking  of  the  collection  of  mounds  in  the  river  bottom  opposite  St. 
Louis,  just  below  the  old  French  village  of  Cahokia,  one  of  the  largest 
mound  centres  in  the  United  States,  Baptist  Ducoign,  a  Kaskaskia  chief, 
told  Gen'l  Geo.  Rogers  Clark  that  it  was  "the  palaace  of  his  forefathers, 
whon  they  covered  the  whole  (country)  and  had  large  towns ;  that  all  those 
works  we  saw  there  were  the  fortifications  round  the  town,  which  must 

• 

have  been  very  considerable ;  that  the  smaller  works  we  (saw)  so  far  within 
the  larger,  comprehended  the  real  palaace;  that  the  little  mountain  we 
there  saw  flung  up  with  a  basin  on  top,  was  a  tower  that  contained  part  of 
the  guard  belonging  to  the  prince,  as  from  the  top  of  that  height  they  could 
defend  the  King's  house  with  their  arrows,"  &c.(36) 

If,  now,  we  cross  the  Ohio,  and  inquire  of  the  Creeks  or  Muscogees  as  to 
the  origin  of  the  works  that  are  scattered  throughout  their  country,  we 
shall  find  that  they,  too,  ascribed  them  to  their  ancestors,  though  they  dif 
fered  as  to  the  purposes  for  which  some  of  them  were  erected.  According 
to  one  account  a  certain  class  of  "conic  mounds  of  earth"  were  thrown  up 
as  places  of  refuge  against  high  water;  whilst  a  more  probable  tradition 
speaks  of  them  as  tombs  of  the  dead,  or  parts  of  "an  ancient  Indian 
town,"(37)  possibly  the  sites  of  the  cabins  of  their  chiefs  and  of  their  coun 
cil  houses  or  temples.  In  1847  Se-ko-pe-chi,(38)  one  of  the  oldest  Creeks 
then  living,  speaking  of  the  former  condition  of  his  tribe,  said  that  they 
erected  breastworks  of  a  circular  shape  for  the  protection  of  their  families, 

(36.)  MSS.  of  Gen'l  Clark,  I.  c.,  p.  135.  He  adds:  "I  had  somewhere  seen  some  ancient  account  of  the 
town  of  Kaskaskia,  formerly  containing  ten  thousand  persons.  There  is  not  one  of  that  nation  at  present 
known  by  that  name.  *  *  *  I  one  day  set  out  to  see  whether  we  could  discover  signs  of  such  a  popu 
lation.  We  easily  and  evidently  traced  the  town  for  upwards  of  five  miles  in  the  beautiful  plain  below 
the  present  town  of  Kahokia.  There  could  be  no  deception  here,  because  the  remains  of  ancient  works 
were  thick— the  whole  were  mounds,  &c.  *  *  *  Fronting  nearly  the  center  of  this  town,  on  the 
heights,  is  a  pinnacle  called  the  Sugar  (Loaf),  from  its  figure.  *  *  I  at  once  saw  that  it  was  a  hill, 
shaped  by  a  small  brook  breaking  through  the  (larger)  hill  till  it  had  formed  a  very  narrow  ridge.  This 
had  been  cut  across,  and  the  point  shaped  in  the  form  of  a  sugar-loaf,  perhaps  to  place  an  idol  or  a  temple 
on,  as  it  could  not  be  more  conspicuous.  It  is  of  very  considerable  height,  and  you  are  obliged  to  wind 
round  it  to  ascend  on  horse-back." 

(37.)  Hawkins,  Sketch  of  Creek  Country,  p.  38.  Schoolcraft  (vol.  IV,  p.  127),  quoting  a  MSS.  copy  of 
the  "Sketch,"  says:  "they  were  also  designed  to  entomb  the  remains  of  their  distinguished  dead."  Bar- 
tram  (Travels,  p.  522)  says  that  the  Indians  have  a  tradition  that  the  vast  four-square  terraces,  chunk 
yards,  &c.,  at  Apalachucla,  old  town,  were  "  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  Indian  town  and  fortress." 

(38.)  Schoolcraft  Indian  Tribes,  I,  p.  267. 


?4  THE   MOUNDS  OF   TIfE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

and  that  the  mounds  had  no  existence  previous  to  their  arrival.  Adair(39) 
tells  us  that  "they  had  a  special  name  for  their  old  round  ear  them  forts;" 
and  Bartram,(4°)  speaking  of  "the  artificial  mounts  or  terraces,  squares 
and  banks  encircling  considerable  areas" — the  monuments  or  traces  of  an 
ancient  town  that  once  stood  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Ocmulgee,  near  the 
old  trading  road,  adds:  "If  we  are  to  give  credit  to  the  accounts  the  Creeks 
give  of  themselves,  this  place  is  remarkable  for  being  the  first  town  or 
settlement  where  they  sat  down  (as  they  term  it)  or  established  themselves 
after  their  emigration  from  the  West,  beyond  the  Mississippi,  their  original 
native  country.  On  this  long  journey  they  suffered  great  and  innumerable 
difficulties,  encountering  and  vanquishing  numerous  and  valiant  tribes  of 
Indians,  who  opposed  and  retarded  their  march.  Having  crossed  the  river, 
still  pushing  eastward,  they  were  obliged  to  make  a  stand  and  fortify  them 
selves  in  this  place  as  their  only  remaining  hope,  being  to  the  last  degree 
persecuted  and  weakened  by  their  surrounding  foes.  Having  formed 
for  themselves  this  retreat,  and  driven  off  the  inhabitants  by  degrees,  they 
recovered  their  spirits,  and  again  faced  their  enemies,  when  they  came  off 
victorious  in  a  memorable  and  decisive  battle.  They  afterwards  gradually 
subdued  their  surrounding  enemies,  strengthening  themselves  by  taking 
into  confederacy  the  vanquished  tribes.  "(4I-)  These  are  a  few  of  the  tra 
ditions  that  have  come  down  to  us  as  to  the  origin  of  these  works,  and 
although,  when  considered  by  themselves,  they  are  not,  perhaps,  of  much 
historical  importance,  yet,  inasmuch  as  the  question  is  not  as  to  their  truth, 
but  as  to  their  existence,  they  answer  my  purpose  as  well  as  if  each  one 
of  them  were  founded  on  fact,  and  had  been  handed  down  from  generation 
to  generation  without  a  break  or  a  blemish. 

(39.)  History  of  North  American  Indians,  p.  67. 

(40.)  "On  the  east  banks  of  the  Ocmulgee  this  trading  road  runs  nearly  two  miles  through  ancient 
Indian  fields,  which  are  called  the  Ocmulgee  fields;  they  are  the  rich  low  lands  of  the  river.  On  the 
heights  of  these  low  grounds  are  yet  visible  monuments  or  traces  of  an  ancient  town,  such  as  artificial 
mounts  or  terraces,  squares,  and  banks,  encircling  considerable  areas.  Their  old  fields  and  planting 
land  extend  up  and  down  the  river,  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  from  this  site:"  Travels  through  Florida,  p. 
54:  Philadelphia,  1791. 

(41.)  And  yet  on  p.  520,  he  tells  us  that  the  region  between  the  Savanna  and  Ocmulgee  rivers,  "was  last 
possessed  by  the  Cherokees,  since  the  arrival  of  the  Europeans,  but  they  were  afterwards  dispossessed  by 
the  Muscogulges;  and  all  that  country  was  probably,  many  ages  preceding  the  Cherokee  invasion,  inhab 
ited  by  one  nation  or  confederacy  who  were  ruled  by  the  same  system  of  laws,  customs,  and  language; 
but  so  ancient  that  the  Cherokees,  Creeks,  or  the  nation  they  conquered,  could  render  no  account  for 
what  purpose  these  monuments  were  raised."  On  p.  456  the  same  statement  is  made  in  regard  to  a  post 
or  column  of  pine,  forty  feet  high,  that  stood  in  the  town  of  Autassee  ,"on  a  low  circular  artificial  hill;" 
and  as  this  pole  could  not  have  been  standing  for  very  many  generations,  it  is  evident  that  the  Indian's 
account  of  what  his  ancestors  did  or  did  not  know  must  be  taken  with  a  great  deal  of  allowance. 


THE   MOUNDS  OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  75 

In  regard  to  the  credibility  of  these  different  accounts,  a  few  words  may 
not  be  out  of  place.  As  has  been  said  before,  they  cannot  all  be  true, 
though  there  is  no  reason  why  some  of  them  may  not  rest  upon  a  basis  of 
fact.  Take,  for  instance,  the  tradition,  found  in  some  shape  among  almost 
all  tribes,  that  these  works  were  built  by  their  ancestors,  and  test  it  as  we 
may,  it  will  be  seen  that,  so  far  from  being  impossible,  it  is  rendered  more 
than  probable  by  the  fact  that  some  of  the  most  elaborate  of  these  remains 
can  be  shown  to  have  been  erected  since  the  arrival  of  the  whites.  The 
evidence  of  this  is  furnished  by  the  mounds  themselves,  or  rather  by  their 
contents,  and  consists  of  articles  of  European  manufacture  that  were  buried 
with  the  body  over  which  the  mound  was  originally  erected.  As  an  in 
stance  of  this,  take  the  series  of  works  at  Circle ville,  Ohio,  to  which  a 
reference  has  been  made  on  a  preceding  page.(42)  It  is  composed  of  a 
circle,  square,  and  mounds,  all  of  which  are  so  joined  together  that  they 
must  have  formed  parts  of  one  connected  whole.  Near  the  centre  of 
the  circle,  or,  as  it  is  called,  "the  round  fort,"  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
had  once  been  inclosed  by  palisades,  was  a  tumulus  of  earth,  about  ten 
feet  in  height,  and  several  rods  in  diameter  at  its  base.  On  its  eastern 
side,  and  extending  six  rods  from  it,  was  a  semi-circular  pavement,  com 
posed  of  pebbles,  such  as  are  now  formed  in  the  bed  of  the  Scioto  river, 
from  whence  they  appear  to  have  been  brought.  The  summit  of  this 
tumulus  was  level,  nearly  thirty  feet  in  diameter,  and  there  was  a  raised 
way  to  it,  leading  from  the  east,  like  a  modern  turnpike.  (43)  The  earth 
composing  this  mound  was  entirely  removed  in  presence  of  Mr.  Atwater, 
and  there  were  found  lying  on  the  original  surface  of  the  ground,  and  about 
twenty  feet  apart,  the  remains  of  two  human  skeletons  that  had  evidently 
been  burned.  With  one  of  these  skeletons  there  was  "the  handle  either 
of  a  small  sword  or  a  large  knife,  made  of  an  elk's  horn ;  around  the  end 
where  the  blade  had  been  inserted  was  a  ferule  of  silver,  which,  though 
black,  was  not  much  injured  by  time.  Though  the  handle  showed  the  hole 
where  the  blade  had  been  inserted,  yet  no  iron  was  found,  but  an  oxide 
remained  of  similar  shape  and  size."  With  the  other  skeleton  "there  was 
a  large  mirrour,  about  three  feet  in  length,  one  foot  and  a  half  in  breadth, 
and  one  inch  and  a  half  in  thickness.  This  mirrour  was  of  isinglass  (mica 

(42.)  See  above  Note  5. 

(43.)  Archaeology  Americana,  vol.  I,  pp.  177  et  seg.  See  also  Squier,  Abor.  Mon.  of  New  York,  p.  107; 
Stone,  Life  of  Brant,  vol.  II,  p.  485,  and  Schoolcraft,  Lead  Mines  of  Missouri,  p.  274,  for  notices  of  other 
mounds  that  have  been  built  in  the  State  of  Obio  within  comparatively  recent  times. 


76  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

membranacea),  and  on  it  (was)  a  plate  of  iron,  which  had  become  an  oxide; 
but  before  it  was  disturbed  by  the  spade  resembled  a  plate  of  cast  iron." 
A  quantity  of  arrow-heads  and  spear-points  were  found  with  one  of  the 
skeletons ;  but  of  these  it  is  unnecessary  to  speak,  as  they  probably  did  not 
differ  from  those  that  lie  scattered  about  everywhere  in  the  Ohio  Valley, 
and  they  cannot,  therefore,  except  indirectly,  throw  any  light  upon  the 
origin  of  these  works.  Not  so,  however,  with  the  articles  of  iron  and  sil 
ver.  These  do  tell  a  story;  and  whilst  they  do  not  indicate  the  precise 
period  of  time  wrhen  this  mound  was  erected,  yet  they  enable  us  to  say, 
with  some  degree  of  certainty,  that  it  must  have  been  subsequent  to  the 
arrival  of  the  whites,  for  the  reason  that  the  nations  that  held  the  Mis 
sissippi  Valley  previous  to  that  event,  whether  Mound-builder  o.r  recent 
Indian,  may,  in  a  general  way,  be  said  to  have  been  unacquainted  with 
any  metal  except  native  copper;  and  this  they  simply  hammered  into 
shape,  or,  possibly,  "having  melted  it,"  they  "spread  it  into  sheets," 
as  Champlain  (Voyages,  vol.  II,  page  236:  Boston,  1878)  tells  us  they 
sometimes  did,  before  submitting  it  to  the  process  of  malleation.  Of 
the  manufacture  of  iron  they  appear  to  have  been  ignorant;  and  though 
the  recent  Indians  were,  unquestionably,  acquainted  with  silver,  beat  it 
into  ornaments,  and  in  all  probability  sometimes  overlaid  copper  with 
it,(43*)  yet  the  evidence  of  its  use  is  relatively  so  slight  as  scarcely  to  merit 
recognition.  Upon  these  points  all  archaeologists  are  agreed;  and  when, 
therefore,  we  are  told,  upon  authority  that  has  never  been  questioned,  that 

(43a.)  "One  of  them  had  hanging  about  his  neck  a  round  plate  of  red  copper,  well  polished,  with  a 
smaller  one  of  silver  hung  in  the  middle  of  it;  and  on  his  ears  a  small  plate  of  copper,  with  which  they 
wipe  the  sweat  away  from  their  bodies:"  Ribault  (1562),  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  p.  178:  New  York, 
1875.  Both  Ribault  and  Laudonniere  make  repeated  mention  of  silver  and  even  gold,  but  the  latter 
writer  (Hakluyt,  vol.  Ill,  p.  369)  tells  us  that  it  is  "gotten  out  of  the  shippes  that  are  lost  upon  the  coast, 
as  I  have  understood,  by  the  sauages  themselues."  Hariot  (Hakluyt,  vol.  Ill,  p.  327:  London,  1810), 
speaks  of  "  two  small  pieces  of  siluer  grosly  beaten  *  *  *  hanging  in  the  eares  of  a  Wiroans;  *  *  * 
of  whom,  through  inquiry,  *  *  *  I  learned  that  it  had  come  to  his  hands  from  the  same  place  or 
neere,  where  I  after  understood  the  copper  was  made,  and  the  white  graines  of  metall  found.  The  afore- 
sayd  Copper  we  also  found  by  tryall  to  holde  siluer."  In  this  connection  the  copper"  bosses  overlaid  with 
a  thick  plate  of  silver,"  found  by  .Dr.  Hildreth  in  a  mound  at  Marietta,  Ohio,  become  of  interest.  Judge 
Force,  to  whom  I  have  so  often  had  occasion  to  refer,  examined  one  of  these  specimens,  and  tells  us  (To 
what  Race  did  the  Mound-builders  Belong,  p.  49),  that  "it  is  native  copper  hammered  into  shape."  He 
also  adds  that "  in  the  Lake  Superior  mines  silver  is  found  in  connection  with  the  copper,  and  the  miners 
there  now,  taking  advantage  of  good  specimens,  hammer  them  into  rings,  with  the  silver  on  the  exterior 
surface  making  copper  rings,  silver-plated  by  nature,  precisely  as  the  Mound-builder  artisan  did  who 
made  the  boss  at  Marietta,"  and  we  may  add,  as  the  Florida  Indian  did,  who  made  the  ornament  spoken 
of  by  Ribault.  In  another  mound  at  Marietta,  half  a  mile  east  of  the  earth-works,  was  found  a  silver 
cup,  evidently  not  of  Indian  workmanship,  which  Schoolcraft  (Lead  Mines  of  Missouri,  p.  274:  New  York, 
1819)  describes.  It  belonged  to  a  Mr.  Hill,  of  Cahokia,  and,  according  to  that  gentleman,  had  been 
brought  to  light  by  the  gradual  washing  away  of  the  mound  by  a  small  stream  which  ran  at  its  base. 


THE   MOUNDS  OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  77 

implements  of  iron  and  silver  were  found  with  the  charred  bones  of  a  per 
son,  over  whose  remains  a  most  elaborate  mound  had  been  erected,  it  is 
proof  positive  of  the  recent  origin  of  this  particular  mound,  and,  inferen- 
tially,  of  the  group  of  works  of  which  it  formed  a  component  part.  There 
is  no  escaping  this  conclusion  except  upon  the  theory  that  the  people  who 
erected  these  works,  supposing  them  to  have  belonged  to  a  different  race 
from  the  Indians,  were  acquainted  with  the  use  of  iron  and  silver;  and  to 
admit  this  is  virtually  to  re-write  the  archaeology  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
Nor  is  this  the  only  instance  in  which  objects  of  European  manufacture 
have  been  found  under  such  circumstances  as  to  indicate  that  they  were 
used  by  the  people  who  found  shelter  behind  these  earthen  walls.  In  Ten 
nessee,  near  Murfreesboro,(44)  similar  discoveries  have  been  made,  whilst 
in  New  York(4S)  and  Florida  these  "finds,"  as  they  are  commonly  called, 
have  been  so  frequent  as  to  make  it  unnecessary  to  refer  to  them  in  detail, 
and  I  content  myself  with  the  following  extract  from  the  fourteenth  Annual 
Report  of  the  Peabody  Museum,  (4<5)  which,  it  is  needless  to  say,  is  heartily 
indorsed.  Speaking  of  some  discoveries  made  by  Dr.  David  Mack,  jr.,  in 
the-  course  of  his  explorations  in  Orange  county,  Florida,  Mr.  Putnam  holds 
the  following  emphatic  language:  "One  group  of  mounds  was  enclosed  by 
an  embankment,  and  was  very  likely  the  site  of  an  Indian  village.  In  a 
burial  mound  in  this  group  a  number  of  ornaments  made  of  silver,  copper, 
and  brass  were  found,  also  glass  beads  and  iron  implements,  which  were 
associated  with  pottery  and  stone  implements  of  native  make.  This  furn 
ishes  conclusive  evidence  that  the  Indians  of  Florida  continued  to  build 
mounds  over  their  dead  after  European  contact;  for  the  care  with  which 
the  exploration  was  made,  and  the  depth  at  which  the  skeletons  and  their 
associated  objects  were  found,  are  conclusive  as  to  the  burials  being  the 

(44.)  Dans  Tangle  nord-ouest  du  comte*  de  Franklin,  au  confluent  de  deux  branches  les  plus  meridi- 
onales  du  Duck,  on  voit  les  .mines  d '  un  vieux  fort  indien,  nonime  Stone-Fort,  qui  couvre  une  etendue  de 
trente  deux  acres.  *  *  *  A  la  distance  d'un  demi-mille  environ  au  nord  et  au  nord-ouest,  1' on  ren 
contre  deux  tertres,  dont  1'un  a  cent  pieds  de  longeur  et  vingt-cinq  de  hauteur  sur  vingt  de  largeur,  et 
1'autre  soixante  pieds  de  longeur  et  vingt  de  hauteur  sur  dix-huit  *de  largeur.  On  voit  croitre  sur  les 
murs,  comme  sur  les  tertres,  des  arbres  aussi  grands  que  ceux  des  forets  voisines.  On  a  decouvert  recem- 
ment  dans  un  de  ces  tertres  un  sabre  de  deux  pieds  de  long,  qui  diflere  par  la  forme  de  toutes  les  armes 
de  cette  espece  dont  on  se  soit  servi  depuis  1'arrivee  des  Europeens.  Des  debris  de  vaisselle  et  plusieurs 
briques  emigres  de  neuf  pouces  carres  et  de  trois  pouces  d'epaisseur  ont  ete  trouves  au  meme  lieu:" 
Warden,  Antiquites  de  1' Amerique  Septentrionale,  p.  51 :  Paris,  1827. 

(45.)  For  an  account  of  these  works,  see  Schoolcraft,  Notes  on  the  Iroquois,  Clark's  Onondaga,  and 
Squier,  Aboriginal  Monuments  of  New  York,  in  vol.  II,  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge. 

(46.)  Page  17,  Cambridge,  1881.  See  also  Report  Smithsonian  Institution  for  1877,  pp.  298  and  305; 
Jones,  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians,  p.  131,  and  Twelfth  Annual  Report  of  the  Peabody  Museum, 
in  vol.  II,  p.  468. 


78  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

original  ones,  and  not  those  of  an  intrusive  people."  It  is  unnecessary, 
however,  to  pursue  this  branch  of  the  subject  any  farther.  The  instances 
quoted  above,  admitting  them  to  be  true  (and  I  do  not  see  how  it  can  be 
doubted),  prove  very  clearly  the  recent  origin  of  the  particular  mounds 
and  works  to  which  they  refer.  To  increase  the  number  of  such  extracts  is 
simply  to  accumulate  evidence  upon  a  point  about  which  there  cannot  be 
two  opinions. 

Having  thus  cleared  our  minds  of  some  of  the  illusions  in  which  this 
subject  has  been  enveloped,  let  us  now  turn  to  the  early  chroniclers,  and 
see  what  they  really  do  tell  us  of  the  origin  of  these  works.  In  examin 
ing  into  this  evidence,  the  division  heretofore  made  of  these  remains,  into 
mounds  and  embankments  or  inclosures,  will  be  adhered  to,  though  the 
order  in  which  they  are  to  be  taken  up  will  be  reversed,  and  the  mounds 
will  be  first  considered.  These  will  be  treated  under  the  heads  of — 1st. 
Stone  heaps  or  cairns;  2d.  Conical  mounds  of  earth  or  burial  mounds;  and 
3d.  Truncated  or  temple  mounds.  There  are,  of  course,  other  divisions, 
but  for  my  purpose  these  are  believed  to  be  sufficient,  as,  with  the  excep 
tion  of  the  animal  mounds,  about  which  nothing  definite  is  known,  (47)  all 
the  rest,  so  far  as  size  and  mode  of  construction  are  concerned,  may  be 
brought  under  one  or  the  other  of  these  heads,  though  it  is  not  intended 
thereby  to  assert  anything  as  to  the  object  or  purpose  for  which  they  were 
erected,  except  in  so  far  as  it  is  made  known  to  us  by  the  authorities  to 
whom  a  reference  may  be  necessary. 

1st.  Beginning  with  the  stone  heaps  or  cairns,  we  are  informed  that  they 
were  either  intended  to  commemorate  some  notable  event,  as  a  treaty 
of  peace,(48)  a  victory,  the  settlement  of  a  village,  the  passage  of  a  war 
party,  (49)  or  else  they  were  thrown  up  as  landmarks,  or  as  memorials  over 

(47.)  Unless  the  explanation  given  in  that  curious  book,  "The  Traditions  of  Decoodah,"  should  he 
accepted  as  authority,  and  this  is  scarcely  advisable  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge.  The  only 
statement  that  I  find  in  any  of  the  early  chroniclers  which  can  possibly  be  construed  into  a  reference  to 
these  mounds  is  in  Charlevoix  (Travels,  vol.  II,  p.  48),  and  even  in  this  case  it  can  only  be  so  construed 
hy  supposing  that  by  "the  great  beaver"  is  meant  the  "beaver"  gens  of  some  tribe.  Charlevoix  there 
speaks  of  a  mountain,  near  Lake  Nipissing,  in  the  shape  of  a  beaver,  and  says:  "The  Indians  maintain 
that  it  was  the  great  beaver  who  gave  this  form  to  the  mountain  after  he  had  made  choice  of  it  for  his 
burial  place.  They  never  pass  *  *  *  without  offering  him  the  smoke  of  their  tobacco." 

(48.)  Beverly,  Virginia,  book  III,  p.  27:  "They  use  formal  embassies  for  treating,  and  very  ceremoni 
ous  ways  in  concluding  of  Peace,  or  else  some  other  memorable  Action,  such  as  burying  a  Tomahawk, 
and  raising  an  heap  of  Stones  thereon."  Erinton,  in  Amer.  Antiquarian  for  October,  1881,  quoting 
Blomes,  says  of  the  tribes  south  of  the  Savannah  river,  "that  they  erected  piles  or  pyramids  of  stones  on 
the  occasion  of  a  successful  conflict,  or  when  they  founded  a  new  village." 

(49.)  "  We  observed  a  pile  of  stones,  *  *  *  which  I  was  informed  had  been  thrown  up  as  a  monu 
ment  by  the  Osages  when  they  were  going  to  war,  each  warrior  casting  a  stone  upon  the  pile :"  Nuttall, 


THE    MOUNDS   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  79 

the  dead.(s°)  They  seem  to  have  been  very  widely  distributed  throughout 
the  area  of  the  United  States,  as  they  are  to  be  found,  as  far  to  the  eastward 
as  New  England  ;(SI)  they  are  more  or  less  numerous  in  New  York,(58) 
throughout  the  Ohio  Valley,  (53)  and  the  States  still  further  to  the  south,  (S4) 
whilst  in  the  West  they  are  known  to  have  been  erected,  within  the  present 
generation,  by  "tribes  living  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Sierra  Ne- 
vadas."(55)  In  point  of  size  there  is  a  wide  difference  among  them.  A  large 
majority  consists  of  not  more  than  "two  or  three  cart-loads  of  stone,"  though 
Squier  speaks  of  one  situated  near  the  Indian  trail  that  led  from  the  Shaw- 
nee  village  at  Chillicothe  to  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto  river  as  being  rectan 
gular  in  shape,  and  originally  quite  symmetrical  in  outline,  and  measuring 
106  feet  long  by  60  broad,  and  from  three  to  four  feet  high.(s6)  Where 
intended  as  memorials  of  the  dead,  they  are  sometimes  piled  up  over  a 
single  corpse,  or  they  may  serve  to  mark  the  site  of  one  or  more  of  those 
general  interments,  when  the  dead  of  an  entire  village  or  a  clan,  for  a  num- 

Arkansa  Territory,  p.  149:  Philadelphia,  1821.  This  may  have  been  merely  a  "land-mark:  "  Our  Wild 
Indians,  by  Col.  Dodge,  p.  557  :  Hartford,  1882. 

(50.)  "To  perpetuate  the  memory  of  any  remarkable  warriors  killed  in  the  woods,  I  must  here  observe, 
that  every  Indian  traveler  as  he  passes  that  way  throws  a  stone  on  the  place,  according  as  he  likes  or  dis 
likes  the  occasion,  or  manner  of  the  death  of  the  deceased:"  Adair,  p.  184. 

(51.)  Mountain  Monument,  in  Berkshire  county,  Mass.,  is  so  called  from  the  fact  that  at  its  south 
ern  extremity  is,  or  was  a  few  years  since,  a  pile  of  small  stones,  erected,  occording  to  tradition,  in  mem 
ory  of  a  woman  of  the  Stockbridge  tribe,  who  killed  herself  by  leaping  from  the  precipice:"  W.  C. 
Bryant,  Notes  to  Poems:  Philadelphia,  1849.  According  to  the  Amer.  Journal  of  Science,  vol.  VII,  p. 
159,  mention  is  made  in  Dr.  Dwight's  Travels  in  Connecticut,  &c.,  "of  two  of  these  stone  tumuli, 
which  appear  to  have  been  erected  over  offenders  against  the  law."  See  also  Aboriginal  Mon.  of  New 
York,  p.  160,  for  an  account,  taken  from  Hopkins'  Memoir  of  the  Housatonic  Indians,  of  the  erection  of 
"a  large  heap  of  stones,  *  *  *  probably  ten  cart  loads,  in  the  way  to  Wanhtukook,  which  the  Indians 
have  thrown  together  as  they  passed  by  the  place ;  for  it  used  to  be  their  custom,  every  time  one  passed 
by,  to  throw  a  stone  upon  it,"  &c.  I  must  confess  that  I  don't  know  where  this  cairn  was  situated  or 
when  it  was  built,  and  it  does  not  much  matter,  as  from  the  name  of  the  tribe  it  is  evident  they  were  of 
New  England  origin.  See  also  Dorman,  Origin  of  Primitive  Superstitions,  p.  185:  Philadelphia,  1881, 
and  Haven,  in  vol.  VIII  of  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge,  pp.  31  et  seq. 

(52.)  A  pile  of  stones.  *  *  *  Indian  tradition  says  that  a  Mohawk  murdered  a  brother  (or  two  of 
them)  on  the  spot,  and  that  this  tumulus  was  erected  to  commemorate  the  event.  *  *  *  They  all  cast 
a  stone  upon  the  pile: "  Howe,  Historical  Collections  of  New  York,  p.  278:  New  York,  1842. 

(53.)  Archseologia  Americana,  vol.  I,  pp.  131-184.  Anc.  Mon.  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  p.  184.  See 
also  a  note  to  p.  362,  vol.  II,  Reports  of  the  Peabody  Museum:  Cambridge,  1880. 

(54.)  "Seven  heaps  of  stones  being  monuments  of  seven  Indians  slain  by  the  Sinnegars:"  Lawson, 
Carolina,  p.  44.  See  also  Jefferson,  Notes  on  Virginia,  p.  191,  and  Jones,  Antiquities  of  the  Southern 
Indians,  p.  127,  for  an  account  of  such  cairns  in  Virginia  and  Georgia. 

(55.)  Yarrow,  Mortuary  Customs  of  the  North  American  Indians,  p.  48:  Washington,  1880.  See  also 
United  States  Geographical  Surveys,  west  of  the  100th  Meridian,  vol.  VII,  pp.  392  and  4.  One  of  these 
cairns  was  twenty-five  feet  long,  twenty  broad,  and  ten  feet  high,  and  covered  the  body  of  a  warrior  called 
by  the  Mormons  Nabbynunck.  See  also  Reconnoissance  of  Northwestern  Wyoming,  by  Capt.  Jones,  U. 
S.  A.,  p.  276,  where  we  are  told  that  among  the  Shoshonies  "the  d.ead  are  usually  burie4  in  shallow 
graves,  and  covered  with  a  low  mound  of  loose  stones," 

(56.)  Anc.  Mon.  Miss.  Valley,  p.  184r 


80  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

ber  of  years,  were  collected  together  and  buried  in  one  common  grave.  (S7) 
This  latter  form  of  burial  was  not  confined  to  any  one  family  or  stock  of 
tribes,  but  seems  to  have  been  common  to  all,  and  was  always  attended 
with  great  ceremony.  The  Jesuit  Fathers  Breboeuf(58)  and  Lallemant  (59) 
give  us  very  full  and  interesting  accounts  of  the  manner  in  which  these 
funerals  were  conducted  among  the  Huron  and  Algonquin  tribes  of  the 
North;  and  the  frequent  mention  made  of  the  custom  of  the  Indians  south 
of  the  Ohio  of  preserving  the  bones  of  the  dead(6°)  leaves  no  doubt  as  to 
the  prevalence  of  this  form  of  interment  throughout  all  that  region,  from  the 
time  of  De  Soto(61)  down  to  a  comparatively  recent  period,  even  if  there 
were  not  other  and  positive  evidence  of  the  fact.  It  is  worthy  of  note, 
however,  that  neither  one  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers  named  makes  any  mention 
of  the  erection  of  a  mound  or  cairn  upon  the  occasion  of  one  of  these  gen 
eral  burials,  or,  in  fact,  at  any  other  time,  though  Morgan,  speaking  of  the 
funeral  customs  of  the  Iroquois,  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  "barrows  and 
bone  mounds,  which  have  been  found  in  such  numbers  in  various  parts  of 
the  country,"  are  to  be  ascribed  to  the  practice  of  disposing  of  their  dead 
in  this  fashion,  and  this  is  confirmed  by  De  Vries.(62)  Be  this  as  it  may, 
there  seems  to  be  good  ground  for  the  assertion  that  some  of  the  tribes 
belonging  to  the  Huron-Iroquois  family  were,  at  one  time  and  under  cer 
tain  conditions,  in  the  habit  of  erecting  stone  heaps  over  the  single  graves 

(57.)  Col.  C.  W.  Jenckes,  superintendent  of  the  Corundum  mines  in  Western  North  Carolina,  says: 
"We  have  Indians  all  about  us,  with  traditions  extending  back  for  500  years.  In  this  time  they  have 
buried  their  dead  under  huge  piles  of  stones.  We  have  at  one  point  the  remains  of  600  warriors  under 
one  pile:"  Foster,  Prehistoric  Races,  p.  149:  Chicago,  1873.  As  the  Cherokees  had  held  the  region 
where  this  cairn  was  situated  from  time  immemorial,  this  was  probably  one  of  their  graves.  That  they 
did  bury  their  dead  in  this  fashion  may  be  inferred  from  a  statement  of  Adair,  who  tells  us,  in  a  note  to 
p.  185,  that  "the  Cheerake  do  not  now  collect  the  bones  of  their  dead,  yet  they  continue  to  raise  and  mul 
tiply  heaps  of  stones  as  monuments  of  their  dead'."  See  also  Anc.  Mon.  of  the  Miss.  Valley,  p.  184,  for 
an  account  of  a  similar  interment  in  Pickaway  county,  Ohio. 

(58.)  Eelation  en  I'anne'e  1636,  chap.  VIII  and  IX:  Quebec,  1858. 
(59.)  Relation,  A.  D.  1642,  pp.  94  et  seq. 

(60.)  Bartram,  Travels,  p.  514.  Adair,  p.  183.  Lawson,  p.  182.  Du  Pratz,  vol.  II,  p.  214.  Beverly, 
book  III,  p.  29.  Bossu,  Travels  through  Louisiana,  vol.  I,  p.  298 :  London,  1771.  Bernard,  Romans,  pp. 
89,  90. 

(61.)  Knight  of  Elvas,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  II,  p.  125.  La  Vega,  Histoire  de  la  Floride, 
Premiere  Partie,  pp.  264  et  seq.,  and  Seconde  Partie,  pp.  39  et  seq.:  Paris,  1709. 

(62.)  League  of  the  Iroquois,  p.  173.  "I  have  seen  at  the  North  (Fort  Orange)  great  multitudes  of 
Indians  assembled,  who  had  collected  together  the  bones  of  their  ancestors,  cleaned  them,  and  bound 
them  up  in  small  bundles.  They  dig  a  square  grave,  the  size  and  length  of  a  person.  *  *  *  They 
then  bury  the  bones  in  the  grave,  with  a  parcel  of  Zeewan,  and  with  arrows,  Kettles,  Knives,  paper,  and 
other  Knick-Knacks,  which  are  held  in  great  esteem  by  them,  and  cover  them  with  earth,  and  place  pali 
sades  around  them  as  before  mentioned."  The  "as  before  mentioned"  refers  to  a  grave  that  was  "seven 
or  eight  feet  in  the  shape  of  a  Sugar-loaf-:"  De  Vries,  Voyages,  p.  164:  New  York,  1853. 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  81 

in  which  their  dead  were  temporarily  deposited.  Lafitau  (63)  states  the  fact 
positively,  and  Adair(64)  tells  us,  on  the  authority  of  "a  gentleman  of  dis 
tinguished  character,"  that  the  Mohawks — one  of  the  Six  Nations — were 
accustomed  thus  to  honor  their  dead.  From  other  sources  we  learn  that 
the  Onondagas,  another  member  of  the  same  confederacy,  whenever  they 
lost  a  friend  away  from  home,  buried  him  with  great  solemnity,  and  ever 
after  when  they  passed  that  way,  visited  the  spot,  usually  singing  a  mourn 
ful  song,  and  casting  stones  upon  it."(6s) 

Among  the  tribes  of  the  Algonquin  family,  as  well  as  among  those  inhab 
iting  the  Gulf  States,  and  which,  for  the  sake  of  convenience,  we  have 
called  the  Appalachians,  the  custom  of  erecting  these  stone  heaps  or  cairns 
seems  to  have  been  more  or  less  prevalent.  Van  der  Donck  tells  us  that 
the  Indians  of  New  Netherlands  buried  in  graves,  above  which  "they 
placed  a  large  pile  of  wood,  stone,  or  earth,"  and  around  this  "they  placed 
palisades  resembling  a  small  dwelling. "(66)  In  Virginia,  according  to  Cap 
tain  Smith,  the  Powhatanic  tribes  had  certain  altar  stones  which  stand 
"apart  from  their  temples,  some  by  their  houses;  and  others  in  the  woods 
and  wildernesses;  where  they  have  had  any  extraordinary  accident  or 
encounter.  As  you  travel  by  them  they  will  tell  you  the  cause  of  the 
erection,  wherein  they  instruct  their  children;  so  that  they  are  in  stead  of 
records  and  memorials  of  their  antiquities. "(67)  In  Lawson's  account  of 
his  journey  through  the  Carolinas,  he  speaks  of  a  "sort  of  tomb;  as  where 

(63.)  "Leurs  fosses  so ut  de  petites  loges  creusees  en  rond  comme  des  puits;  *  *  *  on  les  natte  en 
dedans  de  tous  cotes  avec  des  decrees;  et  apres  y  avoir  Iog6  le  cadavre,  on  y  fait  une  voute  presque  au 
niveau  du  sol  avec  des  ecorces  semblables,  et  des  pieux  qu'  on  charge  de  terre  et  de  pierres  a  une  certaine 
hauteur,  qui  fit  aussi  dormer  a  ces  tombeaux  les^noms  d'  Agger  et  de  Tumulus:"  Moeurs  des  Sauvages 
Ameriquains,  vol.  II,  p.  416. 

(64.)  "  Many  of  these  heaps  are  to  be  seen  in  all  parts  of  the  continent  of  North  America.  *  *  *  * 
Although  the  Mohawk  Indians  may  be  reasonably  expected  to  have  lost  their  primitive  customs,  by  rea 
son  of  their  great  intercourse  with  foreigners,  yet  I  was  told  by  a  gentleman  of  distinguished  character 
that  they  observe  the  aforesaid  sepulchral  custom  to  this  day:  "  North  American  Indians,  Note  to  p.  185. 

(65.)  J.  V.  H.  Clark,  Onondaga,  vol.  I,  p.  52:  Syracuse,  1849.  Mr.  Clark  seems  to  have  derived  his 
information  as  to  the  former  customs  of  the  Onondagas  from  the  account  furnished  by  La  Fort  (so  he 
wrote  his  own  name),  principal  chief  of  the  Onondagas,  and  "keeper  of  the  council  fire  of  the  Six 
Nations,"  who  died  October  5th,  1848.  Macauley,  New  York,  vol.  II,  p.  239,  says:  "Sometimes  they 
raised  heaps  of  stones  over  the  bodies  of  distinguished  chiefs,"  but  he  does  not  give  his  authority  for  the 
statement. 

(66.)  New  York  Hist.  Coll.,  new  series,  vol.  I,  p.  202.  These  Indians  were  Lenni  Lenape,  or,  as  we  call 
them,  Delawares,  and  their  congeners.  Except  that  sand  was  used  instead  of  stones  or  earth, -the  Indians 
of  Plymouth,  Mass.,-  probably  buried  in  much  the  same  manner.  See  Purchas  Pilgrims,  vol.  IV,  p.  1847, 
where  the  same  comparison—" of  the  grave  to  an  Indian  house" — is  used. 

(67.)  Purchas  Pilgrims,  vol.  IV,  p.  1702, 
MEM. — VOL,  ii— 6. 


82  THE   MOUNDS    OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

an  Indian  is.  slain,  in  that  very  place  they  make  a  heap  of  stones  (or  sticks, 
where  stones  are  not  to  be  found);  to  this  memorial,  every  Indian  that 
passes  by  adds  a  stone  to  augment  the  heap,  in  respect  to  the  deceased 
hero."(68)  The  Cherokees,  as  we  have  seen  above,  also  buried  their  dead 
in  this  same  manner^69)  and  among  the  Chickasaws,  Choctaws,  and  tribes 
belonging  to  the  Creek  confederacy,  with  whom  Adair  lived  and  traded  for 
so  many  years,  it  was  not  unusual,  in  the  woods,  "to  see  innumerable  heaps 
of  small  stones  in  those  places,  where,  according  to  tradition,  some  of  their 
distinguished  people  were  either  killed  or  buried  till  their  bones  could  be 
gathered:  there  they  add  Pelion  to  Ossa,  still  increasing  each  heap,  as  a 
lasting  monument  and  honor  to  them,  and  an  incentive  to  great  actions."(7°) 
Among  some  of  the  tribes  living  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi,  especially 
those  inhabiting  portions  of  the  region  now  known  as  the  States  of  Mis 
souri,  Kansas,  and  Arkansas,  this  same  custom  is  said  to  have  obtained. 
The  Osages,  as  is  elsewhere  stated,  erected,  on  one  occasion,  a  pile  of  stones, 
as  a  monument,  when  they  were  going  to  war;  and  if  we  may  credit  the 
account  given  by  Hunter  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  this  and  some 
other  Western  tribes, (7I)  they  sometimes,  "at  or  soon  after  burial,  cover 
the  grave  with  stones,  and  for  years  after  occasionally  resort  to  it,  and 

(68.)  History  of  Carolina,  p.  22:  London,  1718. 
(69.)  Bartram,  Travels,  p.  348.     Adair,  note  to  p.  185. 
(70.)  Hist,  of  North  American  Indians,  p.  184. 

(71.)  "What  remains  to  be  said  of  the  Indians  relates  more  particularly  to  the  Osages,  although  it  will 
apply  with  almost  as  much  propriety  to  the  Kansas,  Mahas,  and  Ottawas.  In  fact,  if  we  except  the  roving 
bands,  the  circumstances  of  the  Indians  settled  immediately  to  the  west  of  the  Missouri  and  Mississippi, 
are  so  very  similar  that  the  delineation  of  any  particular  nation  or  tribe  will  answer  for  them  all,"*&c.: 
Hunter's  Captivity,  p.  213:  London,  1823.  Exactly  what  amount  of  credence  is  to  be  placed  in  these 
"  Memoirs  "  is  a  point  about  which  opinions  differ.  Gen'l  Cass,  in  the  North  American  Review  for  Janu 
ary,  1826,  makes  a  savage  attack  upon  the  book,  and  introduces  letters  from  John  Dunn  (whose  name 
Hunter  took,  and  who  had  "treated  him  like  a  brother  or  son"),  Gen'l  Wm.  Clark,  and  others,  to  the 
effect  that  they  never  knew  any  such  person,  and  that  it  was  not  possible  for  the  events  of  which  he 
speaks  to  have  happened  without  their  knowledge.  This  is  to  some  extent  negative  evidence,  and  does 
not  amount  to  much ;  but  even  if  it  were  true,  and  Hunter  was  a  myth,  and  the  work  that  bears  his  name 
was  a  compilation,  it  would  only  invalidate  so  much  of  the  narrative  as  refers  to  his  personal  experiences 
whilst  a  prisoner.  All  the  rest,  including  that  portion  devoted  to  a  description  of  the  "  Manners  and 
Customs  of  some  of  the  Western  Indians,"  would  then  become  simply  a  question  of  fact,  and  as  such 
would  have  to  be  decided,  as  all  such  matters  are,  by  a  comparison  of  authorities  in  order  to  see  how  far 
the  statements  are  corroborated.  Applying  this  rule  of  evidence,  it  will  be  found  that  the  reviewer,  and 
not  the  compiler,  will  suffer.  To  go  no  farther  than  the  instances  quoted  in  the  text,  we  find  undoubted 
evidence  that  the  Osages  have,  within  the  present  century,  built  both  stone  heaps  and  burial  mounds; 
and  that  if  they  did  not  bury  in  stone  graves,  the  Delawares,  Kickapoos,  and  Shawnees  did,  and  these 
tribes  can  be  shown  to  have  lived  within  the  region  and  inside  of  the  time  covered  by  Hunter's  narrative. 
If,  now,  there  were  no  such  individual  as  Hunter,  as  the  reviewer  plainly  intimates,  then  the  compiler 
of  the  volume  that  bears  his  name  must  have  manufactured  the  story  out  of  the  whole  cloth,  which  is 
not  probable,  or  else  he  must  have  obtained  his  information  from  some  person  who  was  cognizant  of  the 
existence  at  some  time  of  this  form  of  burial  among  the  Indians,  If,  on  the  other  hand,  Hunter  was  a 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  83 

mourn  over  or  recount  the  merits  and  virtues  of  its  silent  tenani."(72)  This 
was  not,  however,  the  only  form  of  interment  practiced  among  them,  as  we 
are  told  that  "this  ceremony  was  performed  differently,  not  only  by  differ 
ent  tribes,  but  by  the  individuals  of  the  same  tribe,  *  the  body 
being  sometimes  placed  on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  between  flat  stones 
set  edge  upwards,  and  then  covered  over,  first  by  similar  stones,  and  then 
with  earth  brought  a  short  distance. "(73)  To  judge  from  this  description, 
these  graves  do  not  differ  from  the  so-called  "stone  graves"  of  Tennessee, 
and  it  need  not  surprise  us,  therefore,  to  hear  that,  although  these  "Indians 
do  not  pretend  to  any  correct  knowledge  of  the  tumuli  or  mounds  that  are 
occasionally  met  with  in  their  country,"  yet  "there  are  other  elevations  dif 
fering  materially  from  the  mounds  *  *  *  which  were  formerly,  and 
are  at  present,  exclusively  devoted  to  burying  their  dead,"  and  which  "are 
composed  of  stones  and  earth,  placed  in  such  a  manner  as  to  cover  and 
separate  one  dead  body  from  another,  "(74)  precisely  as  was  the  case  in  the 
stone  grave  mounds  of  the  Cumberland  Valley.(75) 

Nor  is  this  the  only  kind  of  mound  that  the  Osages  are  said  to  have 
erected  within  the  historic  period,  nor  are  they  the  only  people  of  the  Dah- 
cotah  stock  who  have  been  accustomed  thus  to  bury  their  dead.  Feather- 
stonhaugh  tells  us  that  upon  the  unexpected  death  of  one  of  their  chiefs 
called  by  the  French  Jean  Defoe,  which  took  place  whilst  all  the  men  of 
the  tribe  were  hunting  in  a  distant  country,  "his  friends  buried  him  in  the 
usual  manner,  with  his  weapons,  his  earthern  pot,  and  the  usual  accompani 
ments,  and  raised  a  small  mound  over  his  remains.  When  the  nation 
returned  from  the  hunt,  this  mound  was  enlarged  at  intervals,  every  man 
assisting  to  carry  materials,  and  thus  the  accumulation  of  earth  went  on 
for  a  long  period,  until  it  reached  its  present  height,  when  they  dressed  it 
off  at  the  top  in  a  conical  form.  The  old  Chief  further  said  that  he  had 

real  personage,  and  the  book  is  a  genuine  record  of  his  experiences,  then  the  statement  must  be  accepted 
as  true,  for  the  reason  that  it  is  not  only  antecedently  very  probable  in  itself,  but  because  the  account  he 
has  given  of  the  customs  of  the  tribes  among  whom  he  claims  to  have  been  a  prisoner,  has  not,  as  yet, 
been  successfully  impugned. 

(72.)  Captivity,  p.  309. 

(73.)  Page  355.  See  this  and  succeeding  pages  for  a  description  of  other  modes  of  disposing  of  their 
dead  temporarily  as  well  as  permanently.  Similar  stone  graves  have  been  found  at  Augusta,  Kentucky, 
and,  according  to  Squier  (Abor.  Mon.  New  York,  p.  129),  glass  beads  and  iron  rings  were  found  in  some 
of  them. 

(74.)  I.  c.,  pp.  307  and  308. 

(75.)  For  an  account  of  these  graves  and  mounds,  see  the  Reports  of  the  Peabody  Museum  of  American 
Archaeology,  &c.,  vol.  II,  pp.  305  and  361  et  seq. :  Cambridge,  1880. 


84  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

been  informed,  and  believed  that  all  the  mounds  had  a  similar  origin.  "(7<5) 
According  to  Lewis  and  Clark,  the  Omahas,  about  the  beginning  of  this 
century,  erected  a  mound  twelve  feet  in  diameter  and  six  feet  high  over 
the  body  of  their  Chief,  Blackbird,  (77)  and  Catlin  tells  us  that  at  the  Red 
Pipe  Stone  Quarry  can  be  seen  "a  mound  of  a  conical  form  of  ten  feet 
height,"  which  had  been  thrown  up  over  the  body  of  a  distinguished  young 
Sioux,  who  had  been  accidentally  killed  whilst  on  a  visit  to  that  famous 
spot.(78) 

Crossing  the  Mississippi,  we  are  told  that  the  Chippewas,  an  Algonquin 
tribe,  having  been  successful  in  a  battle  with  the  Sioux,  their  women  and 
children,  "in  celebrating  the  achievement,  erected  a  mound  from  the  adja 
cent  surface,  about  five  feet  in  height,  and  in  diameter  eight  or  ten  feet, 
upon  the  summit  of  which  a  pole  ten  or  twelve  feet  in  length  was  planted, 
and  to  this  pole  tufts  of  grass,  indicating  the  number  of  scalps  and  other 
trophies  achieved,  were  tied;  around  this  mound  the  warriors,  with  their 
usual  ceremonies,  indulged  in  mirth  and  exultations  over  the  scalps  of  their 
fallen  foes."(79)  This,  it  will  be  noted,  is  not  a  burial  mound,  but  seems  to 
have  been  thrown  up  to  commemorate  a  victory,  and  I  mention  it  particu 
larly,  as  it  may  serve  to  shed  some  light  upon  the  object  or  purpose  for 
which  the  so-called  anomalous  mounds  of  Mr.  Squier  were  constructed. 
That  some  of  the  Algonquin  tribes  were,  however,  in  the  habit  of  erecting 
mounds  over  their  dead  does  not  admit  of  a  doubt.  De  Vries  (1642 — Voy 
ages,  page  163:  New  York,  1853)  tells  us  that  the  Indians  about  Fort 

(76.)  Excursion  through  the  Slave  States,  pp.  70-71.  The  old  chief  further  said  that  "the  tradition  had 
been  steadily  transmitted  down  from  their  ancestors,  that  the  Whahsash  (Osages)  had  originally  emigrated 
from  the  East  in  great  numbers,  the  population  being  too  dense  for  their  hunting-grounds;  he  described 
the  forks  of  the  Alleghany  and  Monongahela  rivers,  and  the  falls  of  the  Ohio,  where  they  had  dwelt 
some  time,  and  where  large  bands  had  separated  from  them,  and  distributed  themselves  in  the  surround 
ing  country."  This  mound  is  probably  the  same  one  which  Beck  (Gazetteer  of  Missouri,  p.  308)  describes 
as  being  "one  of  the  largest  mounds  in  this  country,  thrown  up  on  this  stream  within  thirty  or  forty  years, 
by  the  Osages,  near  the  great  Osage  village,  in  honor  of  one  of  their  deceased  chiefs." 

(77.)  Lewis  &  Clarke,  vol.  I,  p.  43:  Philadelphia,  1814.  Catlin,  vol.  II,  p.  5,  visited  this  mound  about 
1832,  and  brought  away  the  skull  of  the  Omaha  chief.  See  his  work  for  an  account  of  how  the  mound 
was  built.  In  Science  for  March  16th,  1883,  Mr.  Frank  La  Fleche,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Putnam,  of  the  Pea- 
body  Museum,  says:  "I  made  inquiries  about  the  mound  made  by  the  Omahas,  in  which  Big  Elk  was 
buried,  and  was  told  that  it  was  about  as  high  as  the  shoulders  of  a  tall  man  standing  up,  and  that  he 
was  buried  with  great  ceremonies.  His  favorite  horse  was  strangled  to  death  by  his  grave,  and  most  of 
his  horses  and  household  goods  were  given  to  the  poor."  This  was  about  1825-'30. 

(78.)  North  American  Indians,  vol.  II,  p.  170:  London,  1876.  He  adds  that  the  story  was  related  to 
him  by  the  father  of  the  young  man,  a  Sioux  Chief,  who  was  "  visiting  the  Red  Pipe  Stone  Quarry,  with 
thirty  others  of  his  tribe,  when  we  were  there,  and  cried  over  the  grave  as  he  related  the  story." 

(79.)  S.  Taylor,  hi  Amer.  Jour,  of  Science,  vol.  44,  p.  22, 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  85 

Amsterdam  (New  York)  "form  the  grave,  seven  or  eight  feet,  in  the  shape 
of  a  sugar  loaf,  and  place  palisades  around  it;"  and  in  the  Jesuit  Relations 
for  the  year  1611,  it  is  said  that  the  tribes  in  Maine  and  farther  to  the  east 
ward  "build  a  sort  of  pyramid"  over  their  distinguished  dead.  According 
to+  McKenney,  a  former  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs,  the  two  mounds 
on  Lake  Winnebago,  Wisconsin,  known  as  Le  Grand  and  Le  Petit  Butte 
des  Morts,  were  erected  over  the  bodies  of  a  number  of  Fox  warriors  who 
had  been  killed  in  a  battle  that  took  place  near  that  spot  between  that 
tribe  and  the  Iroquois.(79")  Van  der  Donck,  too,  as  we  have  seen,  is  equally 
positive  as  to  the  erection  of  burial  mounds  by  certain  tribes  of  this  family, 
and  the  same  fact  may  be  inferred  from  the  account  given  by  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  (8o)  of  the  opening  of  a  mound  that  formerly  stood  on  the  low  grounds 
of  the  Rivanna  river,  and  which  evidently  covered  a  number  of  those  com 
munal  interments  of  which  we  have  already  spoken.  This  mound  was  sur 
rounded  by  a  ditch,  was  about  40  feet  in  diameter,  and  had  been  about 
twelve  feet  high,  before  its  height  was  reduced  by  cultivation.  Trees  were 
growing  upon  it  that  measured  twelve  inches  in  diameter.  It  is  true  that 
nothing  is  here  said  as  to  the  time  when,  or  the  people  by  whom,  this 
mound  was  built;  but  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  revisited  by 
a  band  of  Indians  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  time,(81)  taken  in  connection  with  the 
size  of  the  trees,  the  condition  of  the  bones,  and  the  fact  that  the  mound 
was  in  close  proximity,  or  "just  opposite  to  some  hills  on  which  had  stood 
an  Indian  town,"  affords  strong  evidence  that  some  of  the  later  interments 
found  here  must  have  taken  place  after  the  settlement  of  Jamestown  in 
1607. 

(79a.)  From  aged  Indians  "I  learned  that  a  long  time  ago  a  battle  was  fought,  first  upon  the  spot  upon 
which  is  Le  Petit  Butte  de  Morts,  and  the  grounds  adjacent,  and  continued  upon  that  and  the  surround 
ing  country,  upon  which  is  found  Le  Grand  Butte  de  Morts,  between  the  Iroquois  and  Fox  Indians,  in 
which  the  Iroquois  were  victorious,  killing  an  immense  number  of  the  Foxes  at  Le  Petit  Butte  de  Morts; 
when,  being  beaten,  the  Foxes  retreated,  but  rallied  at  Le  Grand  Butte  de  Morts,  and  fought  until  they 
were  nearly  all  slain.  *  *  *  In  those  two  mounds,  it  is  said,  repose  the  remains  of  those  slain  at  those 
two  battles:"  McKenney,  Memoirs,  &c.,  p.  84:  New  York,  1846.  Other  accounts  represent  this  battle  as 
having  been  fought  between  the  Foxes  on  one  side  and  the  French  and  Menomiiiees  on  the  other.  It  is 
immaterial  to  me  who  were  the  parties  engaged  against  the  Foxes. 

(80.)  Notes  on  Virginia,  pp.  186  et.  seq.:  Philadelphia,  1801. 

(81.)  This  visit  took  place  about  1750,  and  is  thus  described :  "On  whatever  occasion  they,"  the  mounds, 
"may  have  been  made,  they  are  of  considerable  notoriety  among  the  Indians;  for  a  party  passing,  about 
thirty  years  ago,  through  the  part  of  the  country  where  this  barrow  is,  went  through  the  woods  directly 
to  it,  without  any  instructions  or  inquiry;  and  having  staid  about  it  some  time,  with  expressions  which 
were  construed  to  be  those  of  sorrow,  they  returned  to  the  high-road,  which  they  had  left  about  half  a 
dozen  miles  to  pay  this  visit,  and  pursued  their  journey:"  Ib.,  p.  191. 


86  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI  VALLE?. 

In  regard  to  the  practice  of  the  Huron-Iroquois  in  this  respect,  our 
accounts  differ.  Gren'l  Parker,  in  answer  to  the  question  whether  the  Six 
Nations,  after  the  arrival  of  the  whites,  ever  erected  mounds  of  earth  or 
stone  over  single  graves,  or  at  their  general  interments,  says  positively 
that  he  had  never  heard  of  the  existence  of  any  such  custom  among  them, 

• 

but  that,  on  the  contrary,  they  had  always  asserted  that  the  bone  mounds 
were  built  by  a  race  of  people  who  had  preceded  them  in  the  occupancy  of 
the  land.  He  also  says  that  the  reasons  assigned  for  the  erection  of  these 
tumuli,  as  well  as  the  methods  by  which  they  grew  to  their  present  size, 
were  always  given  with  great  uniformity.  This  is  very  high  authority, 
and  yet,  in  the  present  instance,  it  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  decisive, 
for  the  reason  that  it  is  negative  evidence,  and  must  give  way  to  the  posi 
tive  testimony  we  have  of  the  fact.  Thus,  for  instance,  Golden,  speaking 
of  their  single  interments,  tells  us  that  the  Iroquois  deposit  the  body  in 
a  large  round  hole,  and  raise  the  earth  in  a  round  hill  over  it,(82)  and  in 
this  he  confirms  the  statements  previously  quoted  of  Lafitau  and  De  Vries, 
the  latter  of  whom  (1.  c.  page  154),  describing  the  funeral  ceremonies  of 
the  tribes  living  near  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  tells  us  that  "their  manner 
of  living  is  for  the  most  part  like  that  of  those  at  Fort  Orange;  who,  how 
ever,  are  a  braver  and  a  more  martial  nation  of  Indians — by  name  the 
Maquas — as  before  mentioned,  and  who  hold  most  of  the  others  along  the 
river  to  Fort  Amsterdam  under  tribute." 

Of  the  bone  mounds,  or  those  which  mark  the  site  of  one  or  more  com 
munal  interments,  our  accounts,  though  somewhat  meager,  are  not  less 
explicit.  According  to  La  Fort,  the  Onondaga  Chief,  different  forms  of 
burial  existed  among  the  Iroquois  at  different  times,  and  he  might  also 
have  added  at  the  same  time  wrhen  the  conditions  were  different.  Thus,  in 
addition  to  the  mode  of  interment  already  noticed,  we  are  told  that  when 
numbers  were  slain  in  battle  they  "were  gathered  and  laid  in  tiers  one 
above  another,  and  a  high  mound  raised  over  thein."(83)  In  partial  con 
firmation  of  this,  we  have  the  statement  of  the  Modern  Senecas  that  the 
mound  on  Tonawanda  Island  was  the  burial  place  of  the  Neuters, (84)  a 
kindred  tribe,  who  were  destroyed  by  the  Iroquois  about  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century ;  and  there  is  also  the  mound  visited  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 

(82.)  Five  Nations,  Introduction,  p.  16. 

(83.)  J.  V.  H.  Clark,  Onondaga,  vol.  I,  p.  51. 

(84.)  Marshall,  Historical  Sketches  of  the  Niagara  Frontier,  p.  8. 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  87 

Kirkland  in  1788,  and  though  the  condition  of  "the  bones  upon  its  surface, 
and  sticking  out  in  many  places  on  its  sides,"  is  totally  incompatible  with 
any  such  antiquity  as  is  claimed  for  it,  yet  there  can  be  no  reason  why  the 
account  given  by  the  Senecas  of  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was 
built  may  not  be  literally  true.  Especially  is  this  so,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  we  have  undoubted  evidence  that  at  a  council,  held  in  1743,  between 
the  Onondagas  and  the  Anticoque  Indians,  the  latter  "gave  broad  belts  of 
wampum,  3  arm  belts  and  5  strings;  one  was  to  wipe  clean  all  the  blood 
they  had  spilt  of  the  Jive  nations,  another  to  raise  a  tumulus  over  their 
graves,  and  to  pick  out  the  sticks,  roots,  or  stones,  and  make  it  smooth  on 
the  top."(8s)  This  is  believed  to  be  decisive  of  the  matter,  for  construe  the 
statement  as  we  may,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Iroquois,  or  the  people 
with  whom  they  fought,  were  in  the  habit  of  building  mounds  over  their 
dead ;  and,  so  far  as  my  argument  is  concerned,  it  is  perfectly  immaterial 
which  of  them  did  so,  as  the  question  is  not  what  particular  tribe  con 
structed  these  mounds,  but  were  they  built  by  the  red  Indians  of  historic 
times  ? 

South  of  the  Ohio,  in  the  States  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  certain  tribes 
are  said  to  have  had  the  same  custom.  Lawson,  describing  the  manner  of 
interment  among  the  Santees,  one  of  the  Carolina  tribes,  says:  "A  Mole 
or  Pyramid  of  earth  is  rais'd,  the  Mould  thereof  being  work'd  very  smooth 
and  even,  sometimes  higher  or  lower  according  to  the  Dignity  of  the  Per 
son  whose  Monument  it  is.  On  the  Top  thereof  is  an  umbrella,  made 
Ridge- ways,  like  the  Roof  of  an  House;  this  is  supported  by  nine  Stakes, 
or  small  Posts,  the  Grave  being  about  six  or  eight  Foot  in  Length  and  four 
Foot  in  Breadth."(86)  In  Florida  proper,  we  are  told  that,  upon  the  death 
of  a  king,  he  was  buried  with  great  solemnity,  and  the  shell  from  which  he 
usually  drank  was  placed  on  the  tumulus,  around  which  many  arrows  were 
stuck  up.  Le  Moyne(8?)  gives  a  picture  of  one  of  these  graves — shell, 
arrows,  and  all — but  either  the  drawing  is  most  abominably  foreshortened, 
or  else  the  tumulus  is  too  insignificant  to  come  within  the  scope  of  our 
inquiry.  However,  both  this  and  the  preceding  interment  belong  to  the 
class  called  single,  and  this  may  perhaps  account  for  the  size  of  the  mounds 
erected  over  them.  In  each  of  the  localities  referred  to,  the  communal 

(85.)  John  Bartram,  Observations,  &c.,  p.  62 :  London,  1751. 
(86.)  History  of  Carolina,  p.  21. 
(87.)  De  Bry,  plate  XL. 


88  THE   MOUNDS   OP    THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

form  of  burial  was  also  practiced;  and  in  some  cases,  especially  on  the 
peninsula,  mounds  covering  interments  of  this  character  have  been  found, 
which  are  not  only  of  large  size,(88)  but  which,  from  the  nature  of  their 
contents,  must  have  been  thrown  up  after  the  arrival  of  the  whites.  That 
the  tribes  inhabiting  the  Grulf  States,  including  under  this  head  the  Chick- 
asaws,  Cherokees,  Choctaws,  and  the  Muscogees  and  their  allies,  were  at 
one  time  in  the  habit  of  erecting  mounds  over  their  dead  does  not  admit  of 
a  doubt,  though  it  is  probable  that  the  custom,  like  many  others  connected 
with  their  funeral  rites,  died  out  at  an  early  day.  Adair  tells  us  that 
"many  of  these  heaps  are  to  be  seen  in  all  parts  of  North  America;  where 
stones  could  not  be  had  they  raised  large  hillocks  or  mounds  of  earth, 
wherein  they  carefully  deposited  the  bones  of  their  dead,  which  were  placed 
either  in  earthen  vessels  or  in  a  simple  kind  of  ark  or  chests. "(8<?)  Accord 
ing  to  De  Brahm,  a  large  conical  mound  near  Savannah  was  pointed  out 
to  Gren'l  Oglethorpe  as  being  the  tomb  of  the  Yamacraw  Chief,  who  had, 
many  years  before,  entertained  a  great  white  man  with  a  red  beard j'^90) 
and  the  evidence  of  the  younger  (William)  Bartram,  to  which  we  have  so 
often  had  occasion  to  refer,  is  even  more  definite.  Describing  the  burial 
customs  of  the  Choctaws,  that  writer  says:  "As  soon  as  a  person  is  dead 
they  erect  a  scaffold  eighteen  or  twenty  feet  high  in  a  grove  adjacent  to  the 
town,  where  they  lay  the  corps,  lightly  covered  with  a  mantle;  here  it  is 
suffered  to  remain,  visited  and  protected  by  the  friends  and  relatives,  until 
the  flesh  becomes  putrid,  so  as  easily  to  part  from  the  bones,  then  under 
takers,  who  make  it  their  business,  carefully  strip  the  flesh  from  the  bones, 
wash  and  cleanse  them,  and  when  dry  and  purified  by  the  air,  having  pro 
vided  a  curiously- wrought  chest  or  coffin,  fabricated  of  bones  and  splints, 
they  place  all  thje  bones  therein,  which  is  deposited  in  the  bone-house,  a 
building  erected  for  that  purpose  in  every  town.  And  when  this  house  is 
full,  a  general  solemn  funeral  takes  place.  When  the  nearest  kindred  or 
friends  of  the  deceased,  on  a  day  appointed,  repair  to  the  bone-house,  and 
take  up  the  respective  coffins,  and  following  one  another  in  order  of 
seniority,  the  nearest  relations  attending  their  respective  corps,  and  the 
multitude  following  after  them,  all  as  one  family,  with  alternate  voice  of 
Allelujah  and  lamentation  slowly  proceeding  on  to  the  place  of  general 

(88.)  Narrative  of  Osceola,  quoted  by  Dr.  Brinton  in  the  Amer.  Antiquarian  for  October,  1881. 

(89.)  Hist,  of  Amer.  Indians,  note  to  p.  185. 

(90.)  Quoted  in  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians,  p.  131. 


TJIE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  89 

interment,  where  they  place  the  coffins  in  order,  forming  a  pyramid;  and 
lastly,  cover  all  over  with  earth,  which  raises  a  conical  hill  or  mount. "(9I) 

The  third  and  last  class  of  mounds  that  we  shall  consider  are  the  trun 
cated,  or,  as  they  are  sometimes  called,  temple  mounds,  with  graded  ways 
to  their  tops.  They  are  comparatively  numerous  south  of  the  Ohio,  and 
are  also  found,  though  less  frequently,  as  far  north  as  the  middle  of  the  tier 
of  States  that  lie  along  the  northern  bank  of  that  river;  but  beyond  this 
point,  they  are  believed  to  be  unknown.  Of  their  origin  and  use  in  the 
Southern  States,  and  especially  along  the  line  of  De  Soto's  march,  there  is 
abundant  proof.  The  chroniclers  of  that  enterprise  are  in  full  accord  upon 
these  points;  and  though  it  is  not  possible  to  make  out  the  itinerary  of 
that  expedition,  yet  there  is  but  little  hazard  in  asserting  that  he  was  on 
both  sides  of  the  Mississippi,  and  visited  not  only  the  Muscogees  and  Choc- 
taws  of  the  Grulf  States,  but  also  the  Cherokees  ("  Achalaque  ")  and  Chick- 
asaws  of  Tennessee,  and  the  Quapaws  (Capahas- Kappas)  of  Northeastern 
Arkansas.  Among  all  these  tribes  there  was  a  general  uniformity  in  the 
methods  of  building  the  cabins  of  their  chiefs,  and  in  laying  out  and  forti 
fying  their  villages.  La  Vega(92)  tells  us  that  the  town  and  house  of  the 
Cacique  Ossachile  were  like  those  of  all  the  other  Caciques  in  Florida,  and 
assigns  this  as  the  reason  wiiy,  instead  of  describing  this  particular  town 
and  house,  it  was  better  to  give  one  general  account  that  would  answer  for 
all.  He  then  goes  on  to  say  that  the  Indians  always  endeavor  to  place 
their  villages  on  elevated  sites,  but  as  such  situations,  with  the  conveniences 
for  building,  are  not  always  to  be  found  in  Florida,  "they  themselves  throw 
up  elevations  in  this  manner.  They  choose  a  spot  to  which  they  bring  a 
quantity  of  earth,  and  this  they  pile  up  in  the  shape  of  a  platform,  two  or 
three  pike's  length  in  height,  and  large  enough  on  top  to  hold  ten  or  twelve, 
fifteen  or  twenty  houses,  in  which  are  lodged  the  Cacique  and  his  attend 
ants.  At  the  foot  of  this  mound  they  lay  out  a  square  proportioned  to  the 
size  of  the  intended  town,  and  around  this  the  principal  men  of  the  village 
build  their  cabins.  The  common  people  are  housed  in  the  same  manner, 
and  thus  they  surround  the  dwelling  of  their  chief."  To  ascend  this  eleva- 

(91.)  Travels  through  Florida,  p.  516.  Oh  p.  139  he  speaks  of  "sepulchres  or  tumuli  of  the  Yamasees, 
who  were  here  slain  by  the  Creeks  in  the  last  decisive  battle,  the  Creeks  having  driven  them  to  this  point, 
between  the  doubling  of  the  river,  where  few  of  them  escaped  the  fury  of  the  conquerors.  These  graves 
occupied  the  whole  grove,  consisting  of  two  or  three  acres  of  ground;  there  were  nearly  thirty  of  these 
cemeteries  of  the  dead,  nearly  of  an  equal  size  and  form,  they  were  oblong,  twenty  feet  in  length,  ten  or 
twelve  feet  in  width  and  three  or  four  feet  high,  now  overgrown  with  Orange  trees,  live  oaks,"  &c.,  &c. 

(92.)  Histoire  de  la  Floride  Premiere  Partie,  livre  2de,  chap.  XXVII:  Paris,  1709. 


06  THE   MOUNDS  OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

tion  they  have  a  graded  way  from  top  to  bottom,  in  which  the  slope  is  so 
gradual  that  a  horseman  can  ride  up  without  any  difficulty.  Excepting  at 
this  one  place,  all  the  other  sides  are  made  so  steep  as  to  be  difficult  of 
ascent.  Elsewhere,  in  the  town  of  Guachoule,  on  the  head-waters  of  the 
Coosa  river, (93)  and  near  the  country  of  the  "Achalaque,"  the  dwelling  of 
the  chief  is  said  to  stand  on  a  "mound  with  a  terrace  around  it  wide 
enough  for  six  men  to  walk  abreast."(94)  West  of  the  Mississippi,  among 
the  Capahas  and  their  neighbors,  it  was  the  custom  of  the  Caciques  to 
raise,  "  near  their  dwellings  very  high  hills,  on  which  they  sometimes  build 
their  huts;"(95)  and  the  Gentleman  of  Elvas  tells  us  that  in  the  town  of 
Ucita,  near  which  De  Soto  landed,  and  which  is  supposed  to  have  been 
situated  on  the  west  coast  of  Florida,  "the  lord's  house  stood  upon  a  very 
high  mount,  made  by  hand  for  strength.  "(96)  A  few  years  later,  in  Lau- 
donniere's  account  of  the  ill-fated  attempt  of  the  Huguenots  to  plant  a 
colony  on  the  northeastern  coast  of  this  same  Floridian  peninsula,  we  have 
repeated  allusions  to  "alleys,"(97)  which  are  none  other  than  the  "grand 
avenues"  or  Indian  highways,  mentioned  by  Bartram  as  leading  in  a 
straight  line  from  "a  pompous  Indian  mount,  or  conical  pyramid  of  earth, 
that  stood  on  the  site  of  an  ancient  town,  through  a  magnificent  grove  of 
magnolias,  live  oaks,  palms,  and  orange  trees,  to  the  verge  of  a  large  green 
level  savanna. "(98) 

Passing  over  an  interval  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  we  find  that, 
among  many  of  these  same  tribes,  the  custom  still  existed  of  erecting 
mounds  as  sites  for  their  habitations.  The  cabins  of  the  Yazous,  Courois, 
Ossagoulas,  and  Ouspie  tribes,  living  on  the  Lower  Mississippi,  are  said  to 
have  been  "dispersed  over  the  country  upon  mounds  of  earth  made  with 
their  own  hands,  from  which  it  is  inferred  that  these  nations  are  very 
ancient,  and  were  formerly  very  numerous,  although  at  the  present  time 
they  hardly  number  two  hundred  and  fifty  persons."(99)  According  to  Du 
Pratz,  the  temple  of  the  Natchez  was  about  thirty  feet  square,  and  was 

(93.)  Picket,  History  of  Alabama,  vol.  I,  p.  8:  Charleston,  1851. 

(94.)  La  Vega,  Seconde  Partie,  p.  2. 

(95.)  Biedma,  Hist.  Coll.  Louisiana,  part  II,  p.  105. 

(96.)  Gentleman  of  Elvas,  1.  c.,  p.  123. 

(97.)  Hakluyt,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  407  and  415. 

(98.)  Travels  through  Florida,  pp.  103  and  521. 

(99.)  La  Harpe,  in  Hist.  Coll.  Louisiana,  .part  III,  p.  106. 


THE   MOtJNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  91 

situated  by  the  side  of  a  small  river,  on  an  artificial  mound,  which  was 
about  eight  feet  high,  and  sloped  insensibly  from  the  main  front  on  the 
north,  but  was  somewhat  steeper  on  the  other  sides."  The  same  author 
also  tells  us  that  the  cabin  of  their  chief,  or  Great  Sun,  as  he  was  called, 
was  placed  upon  a  mound  of  about  the  same  height,  though  it  was  some 
what  larger,  "being  sixty  feet  over  on  the  surface. "(I0°)  When  a  chief 
died,  these  people  demolished  the  cabin  in  which  he  had  lived,  and  raised 
a  new  mound,  upon  which  they  placed  the  dwelling  of  his  successor,  as  it 
was  not  customary  for  a  chief  to  lodge  in  a  house  that  had  been  previously 
occupied.  (101) 

Whether  the  Natchez  erected  the  immense  works  found  on  the  Wachita 
river,  near  the  outlet  of  Lake  Catahoula,  is  a  point  about  which  opinions 
may  well  differ.  That  they  took  refuge  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
these  works,  if  not  on  their  very  site,  after  the  destruction  of  their  village 
on  the  Mississippi,  and  "built  a  fort,"  according  to  Du  Pratz,  or  "fortified 
themselves,"  as  Charlevoix  states,  is  beyond  question;  but  Judge  Force, (I02) 
who  has  examined  into  the  matter  very  thoroughly,  is  of  the  opinion  that 
they  were  not  permitted  to  hold  this  position  long  enough  to  have  con 
structed  works  of  the  size  of  those  found  here.  In  this  he  is  believed  to 
be  correct,  though  of  course  it  would  all  depend  upon  the  number  of  those 
who  had  sought  refuge  on  this  spot,  and  the  earnestness  with  which  they 
worked.  As  some  indication  of  the  time  necessary  to  the  erection  of  works 
of  this  character,  the  following  fact,  for  which  I  am  indebted  to  Lieut.  Com 
mander  A.  R.  McNair,  U.  S.  N.,  will  be  of  interest.  According  to  that 
gentleman,  upon  one  occasion,  in  1863,  when  coaling  at  the  island  of  St. 
Thomas,  a  hundred  and  fifty  negro  laborers  easily  brought  on  board  the 
Powhatan,  in  twelve  hours,  a  hundred  tons  of  coal,  using  only  baskets  for 
that  purpose.  Allowing  forty  cubic  feet  to  the  ton,  this  would  give  a  cube 
of  coal,  measuring  20  X  20  X  10  feet,  moved  in  one  day  by  a  hundred  and 

(100.)  History  of  Louisiana,  vol.  II,  pp.  211  and  188. 

(101.)  Father  Le  Petit,  quoted  in  note  to  p.  142,  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  III. 

(102.)  Some  Considerations  on  the  Mound-builders,  p.  77,  and  note  B:  Pamphlet,  1873.  Stoddard, 
Sketches  of  Louisiana,  p.  350,  speaking  of  the  size  of  these  works,  says:  "Not  less  than  five  remarkable 
mounts  are  situated  near  the  junction  of  the  Washita,  Acatahoula,  and  Tenza,  in  an  alluvial  soil.  They 
are  all  inclosed  in  an  embankment  or  wall  of  earth,  at  this  time  ten  feet  high,  which  contains  about  two 
hundred  acres  of  land.  Four  of  these  mounts  are  nearly  of  equal  dimensions,  about  twenty  feet  high, 
one  hundred  broad,  and  three  hundred  long.  The  fifth  seems  to  have  been  designed  for  a  tower  or  turret; 
the  base  of  it  covers  an  acre  of  ground;  it  rises  by  two  stages  or  steps;  its  circumference  gradually  dimin 
ishes  as  it  ascends ;  its  summit  is  crowned  by  a  flattened  cone.  By  admeasurement,  the  height  of  this 
tower  is  found  to  be  eighty  feet." 


02  THE  MOUNDS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 

fifty  men ;  and  with  this  as  the  basis  for  a  calculation,  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  length  of  time  absolutely  necessary  to  the  construction  of  these  works 
is  not  so  great  as  might  be  supposed. (I03)  However,  this  is  a  point  upon 
which  it  is  needless  to  insist,  as  the  evidence  is  quite  sufficient  to  show 
that  the  Natchez  did  build  both  mounds  and  earth-works.  Du  Pratz  states 
the  fact  positively,  (I03/z)  and  although  it  cannot  be  proved  that  they  threw 
up  the  embankment  and  other  works  on  the  Wachita,  yet  there  is  unques 
tionable  authority  for  the  statement  that  a  short  time  after  the  destruction 
of  their  stronghold  here  by  the  French  under  Perier,  a  band  of  them, 
which  had  managed  to  escape  the  general  ruin,  made  an  attack  upon  the 
Post  of  Natchitoches,  during  the  course'  of  which  they  were  driven  back, 
and  obliged  to  "dig  a  kind  of  entrenchment  on  the  plain."('°4) 

Among  the  Creeks  and  their  allies,  even  as  late  as  1773-'5,  we  are  told 
that  almost  every  town  had  a  "chunk  yard,"  surrounded  by  one  or  two  low 
embankments  or  terraces,  in  the  center  of  which,  on  a  low  circular  mound 
or  eminence,  stood  a  four-square  pole  or  pillar,  thirty  or  forty  feet  high,  to 
the  top  of  which  was  fastened  some  object  that  served  as  a  mark  to  shoot 
at,  with  arrows  or  the  rifle,  at  certain  appointed  times."  At  one  end  of 
this  yard,  which  was  usually  from  six  to  nine  hundred  feet  in  length,  and 
of  proportionate  breadth,  was  a  square  terrace  or  eminence,  nine  or  ten 
feet  high,  "upon  which  stood  the  Public  Square,"  and  at  the  other  extrem 
ity  was  a  circular  mound  of  about  the  same  height,  which  served  as  a  site 

(103.)  Strongly  confirmatory  of  this  view  is  the  following  extract  from  Isaac  McCoy,  History  of  the 
Baptist  Indian  Missions,  &c.,  p.  27:  "A  little  reflection  will  show  that  the  amount  of  labor  required  in 
their  erection  did  not  surpass  the  common  industry  of  the  savages.  Suppose  a  mound  to  be  forty  feet  in 
diameter  at  its  base,  and  to  rise  by  steps,  one  foot  in  height  and  a  foot  and  a  half  in  depth,  to  the  height 
of  thirteen  feet,  with  a  level  surface  on  the  summit  four  feet  in  diameter.  It  would  contain  about  six 
thousand  two  hundred  and  thirty-three  cubic  feet  of  earth,  or  a  fraction  less  than  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
one  cubic  yards.  To  deposite  on  the  mound  one  cubic  yard  of  earth  would  be  a  moderate  day's  labour 
for  one  man.  Therefore  the  erection  of  the  mound  under  consideration  would  employ  two  hundred  and 
thirty-one  persona  one  day  only.  Among  the  Indians,  the  women  would  perform  as  much  of  this  kind  of 
work  as  the  men,  or  perhaps  more,  and  more  than  twice  this  number  of  persons  able  to  labour  are  fre 
quently  at  one  village  or  one  encampment.  *  *  *  Within  the  Indian  Territory  we  have  ninety-four 
thousand  inhabitants;  one  fifth  of  these,  or  more,  are  competent  to  labour.  This  gives  eighteen  thousand 
eight  hundred  labourers;  if  each  of  these  would,  in  the  course  of  twelve  months,  bestow  only  as  much 
labour  on  the  erection  of  mounds  as  would  amount  to  one  day,  eighty-one  mounds  would  be  built  in  one 
year:"  Washington  and  New  York,  1840. 

(103a.)  Besides  the  statements  quoted  in  the  text,  he  says:  "Le  pied  des  pieux  est  appuye"  en  dedans  par 
une  banquette  de  trois  pieds  de  large,  &  autant  de  haut,  laquelle  est  elle-me'me  appuye*e  de  piquets  frettes 
de  brancages  verds,  pour  retenir  la  terre  qui  est  dans  cette  banquette :"  Histoire  de  la  Louisiane,  vol.  II, 
p  435:  Paris,  1758. 

(104.)  Dumont,  Memoires  Historiques  de  la  Louisiane,  Tome  II,  p.  200,  says:  "Creuserent  dans  la 
plaine  une  espece  de  retranchement  ou  ils  se  fortifierent."  Charlevoix  (Nouvelle  France,  vol.  IV,  p.  293) 
uses  the  word  "  retranches." 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  93 

for  their  Rotunda  or  Winter  Council  House. (I05)  The  Cherokees,  too,  as 
we  have  seen,  utilized  this  class  of  mounds  in  much  the  same  manner,  the 
Council  House  in  their  town  of  Cowe,  according  to  the  same  author,  occu 
pying  the  summit  of  one  that  was  said  to  have  been  twenty  feet  high.  If, 
now,  we  compare  the  method  of  laying  out  these  towns,  and  building  the 
temples  and  council  houses  of  these  later  Indians  with  that  described  by 
La  Vega  as  having  been  followed  by  their  ancestors,  a  century  and  a  half 
earlier,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  resemblance  is  very  great;  and  although 
we  are  sometimes  assured  that  the  modern  Creeks  and  Cherokees  could 
give  no  account  of  the  origin  or  purpose  of  these  earthern  structures,  yet 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  in  Bartram's  time,  these  tribes  lived  much  as 
their  fathers  had  done  before  them ;  and  if  they  did  not  build  the  mounds 
and  chunk  yards  found  in  their  midst,  they  at  least  used  them  for  the  same 
purposes  for  which  they  were  originally  erected. (lo6) 

INCLOSURES. — Of  the  manner  in  which  the  nations  east  of  the  Missis 
sippi  fortified  their  villages,  our  accounts  are  full  and  explicit.  Palisades, 
as  has  been  shown,  were  employed  everywhere ;  but  as  this  term,  alone,  fails 
to  give  an  adequate  idea  of  the  methods  by  which  the  Indians  were  accus 
tomed  to  defend  their  more  exposed  villages,  it  may  be  well  to  go  into  the 
matter  somewhat  in  detail.  To  this  end  it  will  be  necessary  again  to  resort 
to  the  early  chroniclers;  and  although  this  may  prove  tedious,  yet  it  is 
unavoidable,  as  it  is  only  by  a  study  of  the  manner  of  fortification  prac 
ticed  by  the  recent  Indians  that  a  clue  can  be  found  to  the  mystery  that 
surrounds  the  Ohio  system  of  earth-works,  to  which  we  now  must  refer. 
Of  the  origin  of  these,  we  are  without  any  written  record  whatever,  unless 
the  traditions  of  the  Delawares,  Iroquois,  and  Natchez,  as  related  by 
Heckwelder,  Rafinesque,  Cusick,  and  Du  Pratz,^06")  should  be  accepted 

(105.)  Bartram,  MSS.  published  in  Anc.  Mon.  Miss.  Valley,  p.  121.  Adair,  I.  c.,$.  421,  tells  us  that 
"every  town  has  a  large  edifice,  which  with  propriety  may  be  called  the  mountain  house.  *  *  *  It  is 
usually  built  on  the  top  of  a  hill ;  and  in  that  separate  and  imperial  state  house  the  old  beloved  men  and 
head  warriors  meet  on  material  business,  or  to  divert  themselves,  and  feast  and  dance  with  the  rest  of  the 
people." 

(106.)  Bartram,  Travels,  &c.,  p.  520. 

(106a.)  For  the  traditions  of  the  Delawares  consult  chap.  V  of  The  American  Nations,  by  Prof.  C.  S. 
Rafinesque:  Philadelphia,  1836.  Du  Pratz,  vol.  II,  p.  146  (London,  1763),  speaking  of  the  Natchez,  says: 
"To  give  an  idea  of  their  power,  I  shall  only  mention  that  formerly  they  extended  from  the  river  Manchac 
or  Iberville,  which  is  about  50  leagues  from  the  sea,  to  the  river  Wabash,  which  is  distant  from  the  sea 
about  460  leagues;  and  that  they  had  about  five  hundred  Suns  or  princes.  From  these  facts  we  may  judge 
how  populous  this  nation  formerly  has  been;  but  the  pride  of  their  Great  Suns  or  sovereigns,  and  like 
wise  of  their  inferior  Sum,  joined  to  the  prejudices  of  the  people,  has  made  greater  havoc  among  them, 
and  contributed  more  to  their  destruction,  than  long  and  bloody  wars  would  have  done."  In  the  above 
extract  he  refers  to  the  practice  of  human  sacrifices  upon  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  any  of  the  Suns  or 
Chiefs. 


94  THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

as  such.  This  is,  of  course,  rather  a  serious  obstacle  to  be  met  with  at 
the  outset  of  an  investigation;  but  fortunately,  in  the  present  instance,  we 
have  not  far  to  go  in  order  to  discover  a  reason  for  the  seeming  omission. 
It  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  after  the  destruction  of  the  Eries,  say 
about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  whole  of  that  region  now 
known  as  the  States  of  Ohio  and  Indiana  was  virtually  deserted,  and  so 
remained  for  upwards  of  fifty  years.  Iroquois  war  parties  swept  undis 
turbed  from  the  Niagara  river  to  the  Illinois,  and  whilst  there  may  have 
been  villages  of  the  Twightwees  (Miamis)  and  their  allies  scattered  about 
here  and  there,  yet,  practically,  that  whole  section  of  country  was  a  soli 
tude,  unvisited  by  the  trader,  the  soldier,  and  the  no  less  venturesome  mis 
sionary,  the  only  persons  who  could,  in  those  early  days,  have  given  us  an 
account  of  what  they  saw  and  heard. 

Of  the  tribes  that  may  possibly  once  have  lived  here,  the  Shawnees  (l°7) 
were  now  a  broken  and  a  scattered  people,  and  the  Miamis  had  been  forced 
back  until  we  find  them  seeking  shelter  under  the  guns  of  the  French  fort 
on  the  Illinois.(108)  Such,  then,  being  the  condition  of  affairs  throughout 
this  portion  of  the  Ohio  Valley  during  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth 
and  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  centuries,  there  was  nothing  to  tempt 
the  trader,  or  attract  the  missionary ;  and  hence  the  absence  of  all  'mention 
of  this  region,  save  in  the  occasional  notices  of  an  Iroquois  foray,  or  of  the 
spasmodic  attempts  of  their  enemies  at  retaliation.  Later  on,  about  the 
middle  of  the  last  century,  the  above  mentioned  tribes  are  found  once  more 
established  within  this  region,  having  apparently  retraced  their  steps. 
The  Miamis  are  in  Western  Ohio  and  Northern  Indiana,  and  the  Shawnees 
of  the  Delaware,  having  been  driven  across  the  mountains,  re-unite  with 

(107.)  "The  countries  and  rivers  of  Ohio  and  Wabasche  and  circumjacent  territory  were  inhabited  by  our 
Indians,  the  Chaouanous,  Miamis,  and  Illinois: "  Memoir  sent  by  the  King  to  Mr.  Denonville,  Gov.  Gen.  of 
New  France,  in  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  new  series,  1875,  p.  137.  "Formerly,  divers  nations  dwelt  on 
this  river"— Hohio — "as  the  Chawanoes  (Shawanees),  a  mighty  and  very  populous  people,  who  had 
above  fifty  towns,  *  *  *  who  were  totally  destroyed  or  driven  out  of  their  country  by  the  Irocois,  this 
river  being  their  usual  road  when  they  make  war  upon  the  nations  who  lie  to  the  South  or  to  the  West :" 
Coxe's  Carolana,  in  Hist.  Coll.  Louisiana,  Part  II,  p.  229.  For  an  account  of  all  that  is  known  histori 
cally  of  the  wanderings  of  the  Shawnees,  see  Judge  M.  F.  Force,  Some  Early  Notices  of  the  Indians  of 
Ohio:  Pamphlet,  Cincinnati,  1879. 

(108.)  Tonti,  in  Hist.  Coll.  Louisiana,  part  I,  p.  66.  "The  Iroquois,  after  expelling  the  Hurons  and 
exterminating  the  Eries,  who  inhabited  the  country  bordering  on  the  great  Lakes,  which  now  bear  their 
names,  events  which  happened  about  the  years  1650  to  1660,  took  possession  of  their  vast  Territory,  and 
retained  it  for  more  than  a  century  after.  Their  hunting  country,  which  they  once  occupied,  is  now 
embraced  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  and  while  in  their  possession  was  called  Carrahague:"  Appendix  to 
Morse's  Report,  p.  60.  At  the  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix,  in  1768,  they  sold  all  that  region  of  country  now 
known  as  the  State  of  Kentucky,  claiming.it  by  right  of  conquest:  See  Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  378:  Lou 
isville,  1834. 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  95 

their  kindred  from  Georgia,  and  are  settled  in  the  valley  of  the  Scioto, 
where,  singularly  enough,  their  villages  are  in  the  immediate  neighborhood, 
if  they  do  not  occupy  the  very  sites,  of  the  famous  mound  centers  of  Chilli- 
cothe  and  Portsmouth.  (I09)  Indeed,  we  are  told  that  about  A.  D.  1750, 
at  this  latter  point,  their  village  was  situated  on  both  sides  of  the  Ohio 
river, (IIC)  just  as  is  the  case  with  the  mounds  and  embankments  found  there 
to-day.  Of  course  it  is  not  pretended  that  all  the  works  in  these  valleys 
were  erected  subsequent  to  this  date,  and  it  is  quite  probable  that  not  one 
of  those  of  large  size  was,  but  that  some  of  them  were  built  after  the 
arrival  of  the  whites,  a  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  years  earlier, 
is  proved  by  the  contents  of  mounds  opened  at  Circle ville  and  Marietta; 
and  that  these  same  Indians,  or  their  immediate  descendants,  have,  within 
comparatively  recent  times,  "encompassed  their  villages  with  ditches  and 
walls,"  as  well  as  palisades,  is  evident  from  the  account  Schoolcraft  has 
left  us  of  his  visit  to  Prophet's  town,  on  the  Tippecanoe,  and  to  the  sites 
of  other  Indian  villages  in  Indiana  and  Illinois. ("')  These  facts  are 
undoubtedly  of  importance  in  indicating  the  phase  of  civilization  that  had 
been  reached  by  the  builders  of  some — perhaps  the  smaller  and  more 
recent — of  these  works;  but  they  do  not  enable  us  to  connect,  even  infer- 
entially,  those  of  the  larger  size  with  any  particular  tribe,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  there  was  such  a  long  interval  of  time  when  Ohio,  so  far  as  we  know, 
was  virtually  uninhabited.  If  it  were  possible  to  show  that  previous  to 
the  settlement  of  the  Iroquois  in  Western  New  York,  a  Shawnee  confederacy 
had  occupied  the  Ohio  Valley,  as  Rafinesque  (112)  so  confidently  asserts,  our 
task  would  be  much  simplified.  It  would,  then,  be  apparent  that,  in  return 
ing  here,  these  people  were  but  re-occupying  their  old  homes  and  hunting 
grounds ;  and  as  they  can  be  shown  to  have  defended  themselves,  within 
comparatively  recent  times,  behind  ditches  and  breastworks,  (II3)  and  as 
they  must,  from  the  necessities  of  the  case,  have  erected  all  the  mounds  that 

(109.)  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes,  vol.  VI,  p.  277.  Croghan,  Journal,  in  Appendix  to  Butler's  Hist,  of 
Kentucky,  p.  462:  Cincinnati,  1836. 

(110.)  Cristopher  Gist's  Journal,  in  Appendix  to  Pownall's  Topographical  Description,  p.  10:  London, 
1776.  See  also  Croghan's  Journal. 

(111.)  Schoolcraft,  Travels  in  Central  Portion  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  pp.  129  and  323. 
(112.)  Rafinesque,  Ancient  Annals  of  Kentucky,  p.  25:  Frankfort,  1824. 

(113.)  Gist,  in  p.  12  of  the  Appendix  to  Pownall's  Topographical  Description  of  Parts  of  North  Amer 
ica:  London,  1776,  speaks  of  a  "fort"  of  the  Twightwees;  and  Croghan,  in  1765,  found  a  "breastwork" 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash,  which,  in  one  account,  is  "supposed"  to  have  been  erected  by  the  Indians; 
J}ut  in  another  the  fact  is  stated  positively. 


96  THE   MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

were  built  within  that  region  subsequent  to  the  landing  of  the  whites,  there 
would  certainly  be  nothing  forced  or  illogical  in  the  inference  that  they  had 
constructed  the  older  and  larger  series  of  works  during  the  palmy  days  of 
their  confederacy,  some  hundreds  of  years  before  the  time  of  which  we  are 
now  speaking.  Unfortunately,  however,  Rafinesque  fails  to  make  good  his 
statement;  and  though  the  evidence,  drawn  from  other  sources,  bearing 
upon  this  point  is  sufficient  to  furnish  the  basis  for  a  very  plausible  theory, 
yet  it  does  not  afford  a  satisfactory  foundation  for  an  inductive  argument, 
and  hence  it  is  altogether  omitted. 

For  these  reasons,  then,  we  are  without  anv  historical  evidence  as  to  the 

*/ 

origin  of  the  works  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  and  as  there 
is  no  probability  that  any  will  ever  be  discovered,  we  are  obliged  to  fall 
back  upon  the  comparative  method  in  order  to  see  whether  there  are  any 
such  differences  between  the  hill  forts  and  fortified  villages  of  Southern 
Ohio  and  those  found  in  Western  New  York  and  in  some  of  the  Southern 
States  as  would  authorize  the  inference  that  they  were  the  work  of  a  people 
in  a  different  stage  of  civilization. 

Beginning  with  the  "forts,"  as  Gov.  DeWitt  Clinton (II4)  calls  them,  of 
Western  New  York,  we  are  told  that  they  were,  generally  speaking,  erected 
upon  the  most  commanding  ground,  and  were  surrounded,  either  wholly  or 
in  part,  by  ditches  and  earthen  walls.  The  palisades  that  once  stood  on 
some  of  these  embankments  (1IS)  had  long  since  rotted  away,  and  in  their 
places  were  growing  oak  trees  which,  from  the  number  of  concentric  circles, 
must  have  been  three  hundred  years  old;  and  there  were  evident  indica 
tions,  not  only  that  they  had  sprung  up  since  the  erection  of  these  works, 
but  that  they  were,  at  least,  a  second  growth.  'The  trenches  were,  in  some 
cases,  deep  and  wide,  and  in  others  shallow  and  narrow;  and  the  breast 
works  varied  in  height  from  three  to  ten  feet.  In  one  case  near  Elmira 
they  are  said  to  have  been  fourteen  feet  wide  at  the  base.("6)  There  were 
one  or  more  entrances  to  these  forts,  from  one  of  which  a  "covered  way" 
sometimes  led  to  the  water.(II;)  The  form  of  these  inclosures  was  deter- 

(114.)  This  account  is  made  up  from  Clinton's  Discourse  in  Collections  of  the  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  II,  p. 
90;  Squier,  Aboriginal  Monuments  of  New  York;  Moulton,  History  of  New  York,  vol.  I,  part  I;  Clark's 
Onondaga,  &c.,  &c. 

(115.)  MSS.  of  Prof.  E.  N.  Horsford  in  Abor.  Mon.  New  York,  p.  38. 

(116.)  Abor.  Mon.  New  York,  p.  38." 

(117.)  Kirkland  MSS.  quoted  in  Moulton,  New  York,  pp.  16  and  17.  In  one  case  he  speaks  of  a 
"covered  way  in  the  middle  of  a  stockade  down  to  the  water;"  in  the  other  he  says:  "a  way  was  dug 
to  the  water," 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  97 

mined  by  the  nature  of  the  ground;  and  in  area  they  varied  from  two  to 
six  acres,  though  occasionally  they  were  much  larger,  as,  for  instance,  the 
one  near  Livonia,  New  York,  which  contained  sixteen  acres, (II8)  and  the 
one  fourteen  miles  from  Sackett's  Harbor,  which,  according  to  Moulton, 
"covers  fifty  acres. "(II9)  That  they  were  very  numerous  is  evident  from 
Squier's  estimate,  placing  them  at  from  two  hundred  to  two  hundred  and 
fifty  ;(I2°)  and  as  they  seem  to  have  made  up  in  number  what  they  lacked 
in  size,  it  is  equally  evident  that,  taken  in  mass,  the  amount  of  labor 
involved  in  their  construction  must  have  been  immense.  It  would  be  a 
grave  mistake,  however,  to  regard  this  as  a  measure  of  the  populousness 
of  this  region,  since  it  probably  resulted  from  the  custom  of  the  Indians 
of  changing  their  village  sites  every  "ten,  fifteen,  or  thirty  years,"  or  in 
fact  whenever  the  scarcity  of  firewood,  the  exhaustion  of  their  fields,  or 
the  prevalence  of  an  epidemic  made  such  a  step  desirable.  (IZI) 

This  is  a  brief  general  description  of  these  inclosures  as  they  appear 
to-day;  and  if  we  compare  them  with  the  "defensive  works"  as  depicted 
in  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  it  will  be  seen  that  they 
are  very  like  those  along  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  as  well  as  the 
smallest  of  those  in  the  Ohio  Valley ;  and  that  they  do  not  differ,  except  in 
size,  from  those  found  in  the  same  valley,  which  are  usually  ascribed  to  the 
Mound-builders.  In  situation,  form,  and  structure  they  are  the  same,  and 
as  both  were  covered  with  heavy  forests,  there  can  be  no  difference  urged 
between  them  upon  the  score  of  antiquity.  The  relics,  too — especially  the 
implements  and  ornaments  of  stone,  bone,  and  shell — that  are  found  under 
similar  circumstances  within  or  near  these  two  series  of  works  are  identical 
in  form  and  finish;  and  the  best  specimens  of  the  Iroquois  black  pottery, 
described  by  Morgan  (I22)  as  being  of  various  designs  and  sizes,  and  of  such 

(118.)  Abor.  Mon.  of  New  York,  p.  44. 

(119.)  I.  c.,  p.  15. 

(120.)  Abor.  Mon.  New  York,  p.  11.  Compare  Moulton,  p.  18,  who  says  that  on  the  south  side  of  Lake 
Erie,  for  a  distance  of  fifty  miles,  "  is  a  series  of  old  fortifications,  some  of  which  are  from  two  to  four  miles 
apart,  others  half  a  mile  only." 

(121.)  Sagard,  Voyage  des  Hurons,  Tome  I,  p.  81:  Paris,  1865.    La  Vega,  I,  p.  265:  Paris,  1709. 

(122.)  League  of  the  Iroquois,  p.  354.  The  Indians  everywhere  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  south  of 
the  lakes  had  made  great  progress  in  the  manufacture  of  earthenware.  Thus  we  are  told  that  "  the  Eoan- 
oke  Indians  have  earthen  pots,  large,  white,  and  sweet:"  Hakluyt's  Voyages,  III,  p.  304.  The  Creeks, 
Chickasaws,  &c.,  "make  earthen  pots  of  very  different  sizes,  so  as  to  contain  from  two  to  ten  gallons;  large 
pitchers  to  carry  water;  bowls,  dishes,  platters,  basins,  and  a  prodigious  number  of  other  vessels  of  such 
antiquated  forms  as  would  be  tedious  to  describe  and  impossible  to  name.  Their  method  of  glazing  them 
is,  they  place  them  over  a  large  fire  of  smoky  pitch  pine,  which  makes  them  smooth,  black,  and  firm; " 
MEM. — VOL.  ii — 7. 


98  THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

"fine  texture  as  to  admit  a  tolerable  polish,  and  so  firm  as  to  have  the 
appearance  of  stone,"  cannot  have  been  very  different  from  the  same  class 
of  articles  that  have  been  taken  from  the  mounds  in  the  Ohio  Valley. 
Indeed,  Mr.  Squier(133)  says  that  the  terra  cottas  of  Western  New  York 
compare  favorably  with  anything  he  had  yet  seen  of  native  workmanship ; 
and  that  the  earthen  pipes,  said  by  Morgan  to  be  nearly  as  hard  as  marble, 
fancifully  moulded  in  the  form  of  animals  and  of  the  human  head,  are  so 
"hard,  smooth,  and  symmetrical  as  almost  to  induce  doubts  of  their  abo* 
riginal  origin." 

In  view  of  these  manifold  resemblances,  too  numerous  and  too  close  to 
have  been  the  result  of  accident,  it  behooves  us  to  inquire  into  the  origin 
of  the  earth-works  in  Western  New  York.  According  to  Mr.  Squier('24) 
they  were,  one  and  all — mounds  as  well  as  embankments — "erected  by 
the  Iroquois  or  their  western  neighbors;"  and  he  bases  this  opinion  upon  a 
comparison  of  the  "relics  and  traces  of  occupancy"  that  are  found  within 
these  abandoned  inclosures  with  those  which  mark  the  sites  of  towns  and 
forts  that  are  known  to  have  been  occupied  by  the  recent  Indians.  These 
he  declares  to  be  identical,  as  is  also  their  pottery,  whilst  their  pipes  and 
ornaments  are  said  to  be  indistinguishable.  "The  indications  of  aboriginal 
dwellings  are  precisely  similar,  and,  so  far  as  can  be  discovered,  have  equal 
claim  to  antiquity.  Near  many  of  these  works  are  found  cemeteries,  in 
which  well-preserved  skeletons  are  contained,  and  which,  except  in  the 
absence  of  European  art,  differ  in  no  essential  respect  from  the  cemeteries 
found  in  connection  with  the  deserted  modern  towns  and  "castles"  of  the 
Indians."  This  is  certainly  a  very  strong  statement  of  the  case,  and  if  we 
add  that  the  Huron-Iroquois  were  accustomed  to  fortify  their  forts  or  castles 
with  a  ditch  and  wall,  the  latter  surmounted  by  a  stockade,  it  will  be  seen 
that  Mr.  Squier  had  good  and  sufficient  reasons  for  attributing  all  these 
works  to  the  recent  Indians.  Indeed,  now  that  the  palisades  that  once 
inclosed  the  villages  known  to  have  been  occupied  by  the  Iroquois  have 

Adair,  p.  425.  Among  the  Natchez  these  vessels  were  "d'un  assez  beau  rouge:"  Du  Pratz,  II,  p.  179: 
Paris,  1758.  "The  Naudowessies  make  black  pottery  nearly  as  hard  as  iron:"  Carver,  pp.  101-223.  West 
of  the  Mississippi,  at  Naguatex,  there  are  vessels  made  of  clay  which  differ  very  little  from  those  of  Estre- 
moz  and  Montremor: "  Knight  of  Elvas  in  Hist.  Coll.  Louisiana,  part  II,  p.  201.  In  Ancient  Society,  note 
to  p.  530.  Morgan,  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  F.  A.  Gushing,  tells  us  that  "  the  Iroquois  ornamented  their 
jars  and  pipes  with  miniature  human  faces  attached  as  buttons ;"  and  as  this  style  of  ornamentation  is 
believed  to  be  somewhat  unusual,  it  may  be  well  to  say  that,  in  the  Peabody  Museum  at  Cambridge,  there 
are  several  bowls  of  black  pottery,  from  stone  graves  in  Tennessee,  which  are  ornamented  in  this  manner. 

(123.)  Abor.  Mon.  of  New  York,  p.  13  and  chapter  V. 

(124.)  I  c.,  p.  82. 


THE   MOUXDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  90 

rotted  away,  there  is  no  structural  difference  to  be  seen  between  them  and 
any  of  the  earth-works  of  Western  New  York;  and  as  these,  in  their  turn, 
are  identical  in  this  respect  with  the  hill  forts  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  it  must 
follow,  if  the  Iroquois  or  their  western  neighbors  erected  the  'New  York 
series  of  these  works,  that  there  is  no  reason  why  these  same  western  neigh 
bors,  or  a  people  in  the  same  stage  of  civilization,  could  not  have  built 
those  in  Ohio,  and  still  further  to  the  west,  due  regard  being  had  to  their 
population,  and  to  the  necessity  for  such  defenses.  Thus,  for  instance, 
whilst  a  weak  or  peaceful  tribe,  in  the  midst  of  enemies,  would  find  it  nec 
essary  to  fortify  themselves  at  every  point,  a  strong  and  warlike  people,  of 
whom  their  neighbors  stood  in  awe,  would  be  relieved  of  this  necessity, 
except  in  the  direction  from  which  they  anticipated  danger.  This  was 
forcibly  exemplified  in  the  case  of  the  Iroquois, (I25)  when  in  the  heyday  of 
their  power;  and  it  may  still  be  seen  in  New  Mexico,  where  the  Pueblo  of 
Taos  is,  or  was  until  very  lately,  "surrounded  by  an  adobe  wall,  strength 
ened  in  some  places  by  rough  palisades,  "(I2fi)  whilst  their  more  warlike 
neighbors,  like  the  Apache  and  the  Navajo,  have  not  found  such  defenses 
necessary  or  even  desirable. 

Of  the  method  practiced  by  the  Huron-Iroquois  of  fortifying  their  vil 
lages,  our  accounts  are  very  full  and  explicit.  Parkman,(127)  whom  it  is 
safe  to  follow,  in  an  admirable  sketch  of  the  Hurons,  tells  us  that  the 
defenses  of  this  family  of  tribes,  "like  their  dwellings,  were,  in  essential 
points,  alike.  A  situation  was  chosen  favorable  to  defense — the  bank  of  a 
lake,  the  crown  of  a  difficult  hill,  or  a  high  point  of  land  in  the  fork  of 
confluent  streams.  A  ditch  several  feet  deep  was  dug  around  the  village, 
and  the  earth  thrown  up  on  the  inside.  Trees  were  then  felled  by  an  alter 
nate  process  of  burning  and  hacking  the  burnt  part  with  stone  hatchets, 
and  by  similar  means  were  cut  into  lengths  to  form  palisades.  These  were 
planted  on  the  embankment  in  one,  two,  three,  or  four  concentric  rows," 
the  whole  being  crossed  and  interlaced  after  the  manner  of  a  chevaux-de- 
frise,  and  lined  within  to  the  height  of  a  man  with  heavy  sheets  of  bark. 
At  the  top,  where  the  palisades  crossed,  was  a  gallery  of  timber  for  the 
defenders,  together  with  wooden  gutters,  by  which  streams  of  water  could 

(125.)  Morgan,  p.  314. 

(126.)  Bancroft,  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States,  vol.  I,  p.  664. 

(127.)  Jesuits  in  America,  p.  xxix  of  the  Introduction:  Boston,  1874.     Compare  Morgan,  p.  314;  Lafi- 
tau,  vol.  II,  pp.  3  et  seq. ;  Sagard,  Voyage  des  Hurons,  po.  79-80 :  Paris,  1856. 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

be  poured  down  on  fires  kindled  by  the  enemy.  There  was  no  mathemati 
cal  regularity  in  these  works,  their  form  being  determined  by  the  nature 
of  the  ground.  Frequently  a  precipice  or  river  sufficed  for  partial  defense, 
and  the  line  of  embankment  occurs  only  on  the  exposed  sides.  We  are 
also  told  that  in  erecting  these  works  it  was  probable  that  the  palisades 
were  planted  first,  and  the  earth  afterwards  heaped  on  both  sides  in  the 
manner  described  by  Cusick(128)  and  La  Hontan.(129)  At  an  early  day  the 
Jesuits  taught  the  Hurons  to  build  rectangular  palisaded  forts  with  bas 
tions,  and  the  Iroquois,  whose  forts  are  said  to  have  been  stronger  and  more 
elaborate  than  those  of  the  Hurons,  soon  adopted  the  same  practice,  omit 
ting,  in  some  cases,  the  ditch  and  the  embankment.  Among  the  Algonquin 
tribes  of  Southeastern  New  York  a  similar  method  of  fortification  seems 
to  have  prevailed.  According  to  Van  cler  Donck,  (I3°)  the  Indians  of  New 
Netherlands,  "in  their  villages  and  castles  always  build  firm  strong  works. 
They  usually  select  a  situation  on  the  side  of  a  steep  high  hill,  near  a 
stream  or  river,  which  is  difficult  of  access  except  from  the  water,  and 
inaccessible  on  every  other  side,  with  a  level  plain  on  the  crown  of  the  hill, 
which  they  inclose  with  a  strong  stockade  in  a  singular  manner.  First 
they  lay  along  on  the  ground  large  logs  of  wood,  and  frequently  smaller 
logs  upon  the  lower  logs,  which  serve  for  the  foundation  of  the  work..  Then 
they  place  strong  oak  palisades  in  the  ground  on  both  sides  of  the  founda 
tion,  the  upper  ends  of  which  cross  each  other,  and  are  joined  together. 
In  the  upper  cross  of  the  palisade,  they  then  place  the  bodies  of  trees, 
which  makes  the  work  strong  and  firm.  These  castles  are  considered  very 
strong,  and  they  frequently  contain  twenty  or  thirty  houses,  some  of  which, 
by  actual  measurement,  are  one  hundred  and  eighty  yards  (sic)  long,  and 
about  twenty  feet  wide.  Beside  these  strongholds  they  have  other  villages 
and  towns,  which  are  also  inclosed."  The  Pequots  of  Connecticut  were  a 
kindred  tribe,  and  Vincent, (I31)  describing  their  fort  near  New  London, 
says :  "  Here  they  pitch,  close  together  as  they  can,  young  trees  and  half 
trees  as  thick  as  a  man's  thigh  or  the  calf  of  his  leg.  Ten  or  twelve 
foot  high  they  are  above  the  ground,  and  within  rammed  three  foot 

(128.)  In  vol.  V  of  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes,  p.  637. 

(129.)  Travels,  vol.  II,  p.  67:  "The  Hurons  set  up  pales  and  fasten  them  with  earth."  "The  Indians 
are  more  skillful  in  erecting  their  fortifications  than  in  building  their  houses ;  here  you  see  villages  sur 
rounded  with  a  good  palisade  and  with  redoubts:  "  Charlevoix,  Letters,  II,  p.  127:  London,  1761. 

(130.)  New  Netherlands,  p.  197, 

(131.)  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  third  series,  vol.  VI,  p.  39. 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

deep  with  undermining,  the  earth  being  cast  up  for  their  better  shelter 

against  the  enemy's  dischargements."     A  fort  of  the  Narragansetts  is  said 

to  have  had  an  exterior  ditch,  (I3a)  and  we  are  told  that  a  party  of  Mohegans     . 

having  invaded  Block  Island,  were  driven  to  a  high  bluff  and  starved  to 

death,  though  not  until  they  had  found   means  to  "dig  a  trench  around 

them,  toward   the   land,  to   defend   them  from   the   arrows    of  their   ene- 

mies."(133)     In.  1637   the  Algonquins,   living  at   Trois  Rivieres,   Canada, 

being  alarmed  at  the  rumor  of  an  Iroquois  attack,  strengthened  their  fort 

by  erecting  a  second  row  of  palisades,  distant  from  the  first  about  a  foot 

and  a  half,  and  filling  the  intervening  space  with  fascines  and  earth.  (I34) 

According  to  Charlevoix,  the  Outagamis  (Foxes),  in  1712,  made  an  attack 

upon  the  French  post  at  Detroit,  and  having  been  repulsed,  took  refuge  in 

a  fort  where  they  were  well  entrenched  (retranclies).     The  fire  upon  them, 

however,  was  so  steady  that  they  were  obliged  to  get  into  a  ditch  four  or 

five  feet  deep  (se  met  f  re  a  qwatre  oil  cinq  pieds  en  terre).     Taking  ad van* 

tage  of  a  lull  in  the  firing,  they  made  themselves  masters  of  a  house  that 

was  left  standing  near  their  fort,  and  raised  a  redoubt  (redoute).(J35)     Being 

eventually  driven  from  this  stronghold,  they  retired  to  a  peninsula  that 

jutted  into  the  lake,  where,  to  the  number  of  500  men  and  3,000  women 

and  children,  they  shut  themselves  up  in  a  fort,  surrounded  by  "three  rows 

of  oak  palisades  with  a  deep  ditch  behind. "(I36)     Elsewhere,  as  we  have 

seen,  tribes  in  Illinois  and  Indiana  belonging  to  this  same  family  have 

defended  themselves  in  a  similar  manner  within  comparatively  recent  times; 

and  in  the  narrative  of  Conrad  Wiser,  the  interpreter,  we  are  told  of  a 

place  in  Pennsylvania  where  "the  Indians,  in  former  times,  had  a  strong 

fortification  on  a  height.     It  was  surrounded  by  a  deep  ditch ;  the  earth  was 

thrown  up  in  the  shape  of  a  wall,  about  nine  or  ten  feet  high,  and  as  many 

broad.     But  it  is  now  (1741)  in  decay,  as  from  appearance  it  had  been 

deserted  beyond  the  memory  of  man."(137)  •  --^r  •— 

In  Virginia,  the  Indians,  according  to  Capt.   Smith,   had  "pallizadoed 
towns,  mantelled  with  the  barkes  of  trees,  with  scaffolds  like  mounts. "(I38) 

(132.)  Dwight's  Travels,  vol.  Ill,  p.  23:  New  Haven,  1822. 
(133.)  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  third  series,  vol.  VI,  p.  197. 

(134.)  L3  Jeune,  Relation  1637,  p.  83.    In  the  original  it  reads:  "  Avec  dessein  de  remplir  ce  vuide  de 
fascines  et  de  terre." 

(135.)  Nouvelle  France,  vol.  IV,  pp.  97  and  98. 
(136.)  Ibid.,  p.  156. 

(137.)  Published  in  vol.  IV,  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes,  p.  326. 
(138.)  Purchas  Pilgrims,  vol.  IV,  p.  1715. 


102  THE    MOUNDS  OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

There  is  no  mention  of  a  ditch  or  of  an  embankment,  and,  as  a  rule,  there 
seems  to  have  been  but  one  row  of  palisades,  though  when  they  would  be 
very  safe  "they  treble  the  pales."  Sometimes  they  "encompassed  their 
whole  town,  but  for  the  most  part  only  their  kings'  houses,  and  as  many 
others  as  they  judge  sufficient  to  harbor  all  their  people,  when  the  enemy 
comes  against  them."(139)  This  mode  of  defense  was  kept  up  in  Carolina 
until  the  final  expulsion  of  the  Indians,  as  we  are  told  that  the  Tusca- 
roras  (1712-'13)  built  their  forts  in  this  manner,  and  upon  one  occasion, 
when  besieged  by  the  whites,  they  refused  to  surrender  until  cannon  were 
planted  within  a  few  yards  of  their  walls.  (I4°)  In  the  States  still  farther  to 
the  south,  the  same  method  of  fortification  was  practiced.  Le  Moyne,  the 
artist  of  Laudonniere's  expedition,  gives  a  picture  of  one  of  these  vil 
lages,^41)  which  is  surrounded  by  a  single  row  of  palisades,  twice  the  height 
of  a  man,  set  close  together.  The  entrance  is  narrow,  drawn  in  after  the 
manner  of  a  snail  shell,  and  is  further  defended  by  two  small  round  build 
ings,  with  slits  and  holes  for  observation,  something  like  an  old-fashioned 
sentry-box. 

In  the  Gulf  States,  including  under  this  head  portions  of  Tennessee  and 
Arkansas,  the  Indians  have  been  in  the  habit  of  fortifying  their  villages 
with  ditches  and  stockades  from  the  time  of  De  Soto  down  to  the  begin 
ning  of  the  present  century.  As  late  as  1814  the  position  of  the  Creeks, 
at  the  battle  of  the  Horseshoe,  is  said  to  have  been  protected  by  a  line 
of  earth-works  from  six  to  eight  feet  high,(I+2)  and  about  1735,  almost  a 
century  earlier,  the  Chickasaws  met  the  attack  of  Bienville  in  a  stockaded 
fort,  and  standing,  waist  deep,  in  a  ditch.(143)  Going  back  still  farther, 
we  are  told  by  the  Portuguese  Gentleman  (I44)  that  the  wall  around  a 
town  belonging  to  the  Cacique  of  Co^a,  as  well  as  that  "of  others  which 
afterwards  we  saw,  was  of  great  posts  thrust  deep  into  the  ground,  and 

(139.)  Beverly,  book  III,  p.  12. 

(140.)  Martin,  North  Carolina,  vol.  I,  p.  251:  New  Orleans,  1829. 

(141.)  De  Bry,  plate  XXX. 

(142.)  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes,  vol.  VI,  p.  372. 

(143.)  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  II,  p.  83:  "Surrounded  by  timber  one  cubic  foot  placed  circularly 
with  three  rows  of  loop-holes;  the  Chicachas  were  bedded  to  the  stomach  in  the  earth,"  &c.  "A  large 
village,  surrounded  by  a  kind  of  wall  made  with  potter's  clay  and  sand,  fortified  with  little  towers  at 
intervals,  where  we  found  fastened  to  a  post  the  arms  of  Spain  engraved  on  a  copper  plate,  dated  1588 : " 
Cavelier  in  Shea's  Early  Voyages,  p.  21:  Albany,  1861.  "The  old  village  of  the  Akansea,  where  they 
formerly  received  the  late  Father  Marquette,  and  which  is  discernible  now  only  by  the  old  outworks 
(ckhors),  there  being  no  cabins  left:  "  Father  Gravier  in  Shea's  Early  Voyages,  p.  126. 

(144.)  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  II,  p.  153. 

; 


THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  103 

very  rough;  and  many  long  rails,  as  big  as  one's  arm,  laid  across  be 
tween  them,  and  the  wall  was  about  the  height  of  a  lance,  and  it  was 
daubed  within  and  without  with  clay,  and  had  loop-holes."  The  town  of 
Mauvila  was  situated  in  a  plain,  and  consisted  of  eighty  houses,  the  small 
est  of  which,  according  to  La  Vega,  might  contain  six  hundred  persons. 
It  was  surrounded  by  a  high  rampart,  palisaded  with  heavy  beams  of 
wood  planted  in  the  ground,  and  with  timbers  placed  crosswise.  The 
vacant  places  were  filled  in  with  earth  mixed  with  straw,  so  that  the  wall 
looked  like  a  piece  of  masonry.  At  every  fifty  paces  there  was  a  small 
tower,  with  loop-holes,  large  enough  to  hold  eight  men.  The  town  had  two 
gates,  and  a  large  square  in  the  middle,  which  was  surrounded  by  the 
principal  houses.('45)  West  of  the  Mississippi  was  the  village  of  Capaha, 
which  is  said  to  have  consisted  of  five  hundred  houses.  It  was  situated  on 
a  little  hill,  surrounded  by  a  ditch  ten  or  twelve  cubits  deep,  and  fifty  paces 
wide  in  most  places,  and  in  others  only  forty.  This  ditch  was  kept  full  of 
water  by  means  of  a  canal  that  had  been  dug  from  the  town  to  the  river 
Chucagua.  This  canal  was  three  leagues  long,  a  pike's  length,  at  least,  in 
depth,  and  so  broad  that  two  large  boats  could  navigate  it  side  by  side. 
The  fosse,  filled  by  this  canal,  surrounds  the  city  except  in  one  place,  which 
is  closed  by  heavy  posts  planted  in  the  ground;  and  fastened  by  means  of 
others  placed  crosswise,  the  whole  being  covered  with  earth  and  straw. 
Within  this  town  was  the  temple,  in  which  were  deposited  the  bones  of  the 
ancestors  of  the  Capaha  chief.  This  the  Indian  allies  of  De  Soto  pillaged, 
breaking  open  the  coffins  and  scattering  the  bones.  They  also  removed  the 
heads  of  their  countrymen,  who  had  been  killed  in  previous  wars,  and  sub 
stituted  those  of  the  Capahas  who  had  fallen  in  the  recent  battle.  (I46)  This 
is  the  account  left  by  La  Vega  of  this  village,  and  though  it  is  evidently 
exaggerated,  as  are  all  of  his  descriptions,  yet  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
it  is  substantially  true,  as  it  is  confirmed  in  all  important  particulars  by  the 
other  chroniclers  of  that  expedition.  Thus,  for  instance,  Biedma(147)  tells 
us  that  "they  reached  a  village  in  the  midst  of  a  plain,  surrounded  by 
walls  and  a  ditch  filled  with  water  which  had  been  made  by  the  Indians;" 
and  according  to  the  Knight  of  Elvas,(148)  this  town,  which  he  calls  Pacaha, 

(145.)  La  Vega,  Seconde  Partie,  p.  19. 

(146.)  Ibid.     Seconde  Partie  Livre  Second,  chap.  VI  and  VII.     Compare  this  with  the  account  of  the 
Temple  of  the  Tensas,  by  Tonti,  on  p.  42. 

(147.)  Hist.  Coll.  of  Louisiana,  part  II,  p.  105. 
(148.)  I  c.,  part  II,  p.  172. 


104  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

"was  very  great,  walled  and  beset  with  towers,  and  many  loop-holes  were 
in  the  towers  and  wall.  *  *  Where  the  Governor  was  lodged  was  a 

great  lake  that  came  near  unto  the  wall ;  and  it  entered  into  a  ditch  that 
went  round  about  the  town,  wanting  but  a  little  to  environ  it  around.  From 
the  lake  to  the  great  river  was  made  a  wear  by  which  the  fish  came  into  it; 
*  with  nets  that  were  found  in  the  town  they  took  as  much  as 
they  would ;  and  took  they  never  so  much,  there  was  no  want  perceived. 
Within  a  league  and  a  half  there  were  other  great  towns  all  walled." 

Proceeding  still  further  to  the  northwest,  we  are  told  that,  within  the 
present  century,  the  Mandans,  Arikaras,  and  other  tribes  living  high  up  on 
the  Missouri,  when  they  were  first  visited  by  the  whites,  were  accustomed 
to  fortify  their  towns  by  ditches,  embankments,  and  palisades.  Lewis  and 
Clarke  make  repeated  mention  of  recently  abandoned  Indian  villages,  sur 
rounded  by  earthen  walls,  which,  in  one  case,  at  least,  are  said  to  have  been 
eight  or  ten  feet  high;(149)  and  Brackenridge,(I5°)  who  visited  these  same 
tribes  in  1811,  tells  us  of  a  citadel  or  fortification  oval  in  form,  and  four  or 
five  acres  in  extent,  around  which  a  village  had  apparently  been  built.  The 
earthen  wall  that  inclosed  this  fort  was  about  four  feet  high,  and  upon  it 
cedar  posts  were  still  standing.  Struck  with  the  resemblance,  "in  every 
respect,"  between  these  ru'ins  and  the  "vestiges,"  as  he  calls  the  earth 
works  on  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi,  he  very  justly  concluded  that 
these  latter  were  but  the  sites  of  stockaded  towns  and  villages  ;(ISI)  and  this 
inference  is  borne  out  by  the  fact  that  on  some  of  them  "the  remains  of 
pallisadoes  were  found  by  the  first  settlers.  "(tsz) 

That  this  resemblance  is  not  altogether  fanciful  will  be  admitted  by  those 
who  have  followed  the  course  of  this  investigation,  though  it  is  possible  that 
the  comparison  would  be  more  just  if  it  were  limited  to  the  hill  forts  of  the 
Ohio  Valley.  Defensive  works  of  the  character  of  these  latter  seem  to 
have  been  the  same  everywhere,  and  whether  built  by  Iroquois,  Chickasaw, 
Mandan,  or  Mound-builder,  admit  of  no  distinction  in  situation,  form,  or 
structure.  Not  so,  however,  with  the  class  of  works  to  which  the  term 

(149.)  Lewis  and  Clarke,  vol.  I,  pp.  62,  92,  94,  97,  98,  108,  &c.:  Philadelphia,  1814.  The  Omahas  and 
Pawnees  too,  so  I  am  told  by  Miss  Alice  C.  Fletcher,  "  formerly  dug  ditches  around  their  villages,  and 
made  walls  from  three  to  five  feet  high." 

(150.)  Views  of  Louisiana,  p.  242.  He  adds:  "Probably,  in  cases  of  siege,  the  whole  village  wa$ 
Crowded  into  this  space." 

(151.)  Ibid.,  p.  183.    Compare  Catlin,  vol.  II,  pp.  259  et.  seq. 
(152.)  Ibid.,  p.  21, 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  105 

fortified  village  has  been  applied.  These  are  groups  rather  than  single 
works,  and  though  primarily  nothing  but  mounds,  ditches,  and  embank 
ments,  and  as  such  differing  in  nowise,  except  perhaps  in  size,  from  similar 
structures  elsewhere,  yet  they  are  often  arranged  in  such  a  complicated 
manner  as  to  have  but  little  in  common  with  the  inclosures,  north  of  the 
Ohio,  that  are  known  to  have  been  erected  by  the  modern  Indians.  For 
their  counterparts  we  must  look  to  the  Gulf  States,  Georgia  and  Arkansas, 
and  it  is  possible  that,  even  here,  they  will  be  found  to  be  neither  so  large 
nor  so  complicated.  Upon  this  point,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  "  make 
haste  slowly,"  as  our  knowledge  of  the  earth-works  in  the  Southern  States 
is  very  slight ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  statement  of  the  Portu 
guese  Gentleman (I53)  as  to  the  existence  of  "great  and  walled  towns,  and 
many  houses  scattered  all  about  the  fields,  to-wit,  a  cross-bow  shot  or  two, 
the  one  from  the  other,"  taken  in  connection  with  what  is  known  of  the 
manner  in  which  these  tribes  built  their  houses  and  fortified  their  villages, 
is  suggestive  of  a  condition  of  affairs  strongly  resembling  the  famous 
mound  centres  of  the  Ohio  Valley. (I54)  In  all  other  respects,  the  works  of 
the  Southern  Indians,  such  as  they  have  been  described  by  the  early  chron 
iclers,  will  compare  favorably  with  anything  of  the  same  character  that  has 
yet  been  found  in  the  United  States.  The  truncated  or  temple  mounds 
are  far  more  numerous  in  the  States  south  of  the  Ohio  than  anywhere  else 
in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and,  except  in  one  or  two  notable  instances,  are 
of  larger  size;  whilst  the  artificial  ponds,  with  canals  to  feed  them,  are 
believed  to  be  peculiar  to  that  region. 

Of  the  other  earth-works — the  stone  cairns,  burial  mounds,  graded  ways, 
ditches  and  embankments — it  can  only  be  said  that  they  are  common  to 
both  sections,  and  that  the  only  difference  between  them  is  in  their  size,  or 
in  the  order  in  which  they  are  sometimes  grouped  together.  Even  in  these 

(153.)  I.  c.,  pp.  1GO,  169,  170,  144,  and  172.  The  Indians  everywhere  throughout  this  region  built  their 
villages  in  groups,  some  of  which  were  very  large.  Upon  this  point  consult  the  other  chroniclers  of  De 
Soto's  expedition  and  the  narratives  of  Father  Douay,  p.  204,  and  Gravier,  pp.  133,  138,  and  148  ;  also 
Adair,  p.  352,  and  Charlevoix,  Letters  II,  p.  245  et  seq.:  London,  1761. 

(154.)  A  series  of  explorations,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Peabody  Museum  of  American  Archaeology 
and  Ethnology,  has  recently  been  conducted  amid  the  mounds  and  village  sites  of  the  northeastern  por 
tion  of  Arkansas — the  region  that  the  Capahas  are  supposed  to  have  inhabited  in  the  time  of  De  Soto, 
and  where  they  were  found  by  Fathers  Douay  and  Charlevoix  in  1687  and  1721 — and  it  is  curious  to  note 
how  the  statement  of  the  old  chronicler  as  to  the  existence  of  "  walled  towns  within  a  league  or  a  league 
and  a  half  of  each  other"  is  verified.  See  Fourteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Peabody  Museum,  p.  19, 
where  we  are  told  that  "  these  mounds  are  usually  surrounded  by  earth-works  and  ditches,  forming 
inclosures  of  from  three  or  four  to  eighteen  or  twenty  acres  ;"  and  the  MS.  field  notes  of  the  late  Mr. 
Edwin  Curtiss,  now  in  the  Peabody  Museum,  for  tlje  relative  situation  of  some  of  these  inclosures. 


106  THE   MOUNDS   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

particulars  the  advantage  is  not  always  on  one  side,  for  the  reason  that 
there  is  no  uniformity  in  any  of  the  works;  and  whilst,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  largest  and  most  complicated  group  of  the  Ohio  system  exceeds 
anything  that  has  yet  been  found  in  the  Gulf  States,  it  is  equally  true  that 
there  are  mounds  and  embankments  south  of  the  Ohio  that  are  larger  than 
are  many  of  those  found  to  the  north  of  that  stream.  Between  the  giant 
mass  of  the  Cahokia,  Illinois,  mound  and  the  long  lines  of  embankment 
on  Paint  creek,  Ohio,  and  their  counterparts  in  Mississippi  (I55)  and  else 
where  in  the  Southern  States,  (Is6)  the  difference  is  much  less  than  it  is 
between  these  same  works  and  the  average  of  those  of  similar  character 
in  the  northern  half  of  the  Ohio  Valley.  But  even  if  there  were  no  such 
differences,  and  the  groups  in  the  Ohio  system  of  works  were  uniformly  of 
larger  size  and  more  complicated  pattern  than  can  be  found  elsewhere  in 
the  United  States,  the  fact  would  still  be  without  any  ethnical  significance; 
otherwise  we  should  have  'to  admit  that  there  existed  in  the  Ohio  Valley, 
at  or  about  the  same  time,  and  in  close  proximity  to  each  other,  as  many 
different  races  or  phases  of  civilization  as  there  are  groups  of  works,  and 
this  would  be  absurd. 

With  the  establishment  of  this  point,  my  task  is  brought  to  a  close.  In 
it  I  have  confined  myself  almost  entirely  to  the  historical  proof  of  the 
recent  origin  of  these  works,  and,  except  incidentally,  have  ignored  the 
argument  that  may  be  drawn  from  the  similarity  of  burial  customs,  and 
from  the  identity  of  the  implements  and  ornaments  found  in  the  mounds 
with  those  that  are  known  to  have  been  made  and  used  by  the  recent 
Indians.  This  has  not  proceeded  from  any  failure  to  appreciate  the  full 
ethnical  significance  of  these  resemblances,  nor  has  it  been  caused  by  any 
lack  of  material ;  but  it  has  been  the  result  of  the  limits  voluntarily  placed 
upon  the  investigation.  At  some  future  time  it  may  be  necessary  to  revert 
to  this  subject,  and  then  it  will  be  competent  to  show  that  the  "vestiges  of 
art,"  found  in  the  mounds,  "do  not  excel  in  any  respect  those  of  the  Indian 
tribes  known  to  history. "(I57)  In  the  meantime  we  can  well  afford  to  con- 

(155.)  The  great  mound  at  Seltzertown,  Mississippi,  according  to  Brackenridge,  Appendix  to  Views  of 
Louisiana,  was  a  truncated  pyramid  600  X  400  feet,  and  forty  feet  in  perpendicular  height.  It  was 
ascended  by  graded  ways,  and  the  area  on  top  embraced  about  four  acres.  At  each  end  of  this  area,  and 
near  the  centre,  were  other  mounds,  one  of  which  was  about  forty  feet  high,  with  a  level  space  at  its 
summit  thirty  feet  in  diameter.  The  whole  was  surrounded  by  a  ditch  that  averaged  ten  feet  deep. 

(156.)  For  the  size  of  some  of  these  works,  see  above  note  102.  Compare  also  Squier,  Aborig.  Mon.  of 
the  Miss.  Valley,  pp.  113  et  seq.;  and  Jones,  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians,  p.  163:  New  York,  1873. 

(157.)  J.  W.  Powell,  in  Transactions  of  the  Anthropological  Society  of  Washington,  p.  116:  Pamphlet, 
1881, 


THE    MOUNDS   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.  107 

tent  ourselves  with  this  brief  and  cursory  examination  into  the  early  rec 
ords.  Summing  up  the  results  that  have  been  attained,  it  may  be  safely 
said  that,  so  far  from  there  being  any  a  priori  reason  why  the  red  Indians 
could  not  have  erected  these  works,  the  evidence  shows  conclusively  that 
in  New  York  and  the  Gulf  States  they  did  build  mounds  and  embank 
ments  that  are,  essentially,  of  the  same  character  as  those  found  in  Ohio. 
And  not  only  is  this  true,  but  it  has  also  been  shown  that  whilst,  for  rea 
sons  that  have  been  given,  we  are  without  any  historical  account  of  the 
origin  of  the  Ohio  system  of  works — the  only  one  about  which  there  seems- 
to  be  any  dispute — yet  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  one  of  the  more  elabo 
rate  of  them,  viz:  the  mound  at  Circleville,  in  which  were  found  articles  of 
iron  and  silver,  was  built  after  contact  with  the  whites,  and  therefore  by 
the  recent  Indians. 

In  view  of  these  results,  and  of  the  additional  fact  that  these  same  In 
dians  are  the  only  people,  except  the  whites,  who,  so  far  as  we  know,  have 
ever  held  the  region  over  which  these  works  are  scattered,  it  is  believed 
that  we  are  fully  justified  in  abandoning  the  seemingly  negative  position 
occupied  at  the  outset  of  this  argument,  and  in  claiming  that  the  mounds 
and  inclosures  of  Ohio,  like  those  in  New  York  and  the  Gulf  States,  were 
the  work  of  the  red  Indians  of  historic  times,  or  of  their  immediate  ances 
tors.  To  deny  this  conclusion,  and  to  accept  its  alternative,  ascribing  these 
remains  to  a  mythical  people  of  a  different  civilization,  is  to  reject  a  simple 
and  satisfactory  explanation  of  a  fact  in  favor  of  one  that  is  far-fetched  and 
incomplete,  and  this  is  neither  science  nor  logic. 


